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Project Noah Nature School
Nice info, Ashley. I've lived in this area my whole life, always been a chronic rock flipper, but this was the first one of these that I have ever seen. I was pretty excited!
Yes, it was under some sandstone rocks in a dry creek bed. The terrain was gently rolling. We were surveying along an existing pipeline right of way so there was a maintained pasture corridor but that corridor was surrounded by a loose post oak dominant forest so it is hard to say if it is more likely to be found in forest or pasture.
No, actually I was doing a beetle survey and the bird was nearby. I picked it up for the photo then released it.
Unfortunately, they did not make it. I re-buried them in the soil in a 5-gallon bucket and after about a week of no activity, I moved away the soil and saw that the eggs were stinky and deflated, as though they had been crushed (very gooey, not like deflated as in the snakes hatched). :-(
