Michael S. Hayslett

Lynchburg, Virginia

The VHS held its spring field meeting on 23-24 April 1994 in the extreme southwestern region of the Commonwealth, with the base of operations at a local hotel in Kingsport, Tennessee, situated near the target-outing location of neighboring Scott County, Virginia. Although the hotel site did not provide opportunities for impromptu herping as we've had at past locations, it was nevertheless a comfortable headquarters for the exciting opportunity which this year's meeting afforded VHS members and guests, to perform a survey of herpetofauna found in the rich and diverse Copper Creek drainage.

The data obtained from this two-day survey will be used by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Virginia Chapter of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to better understand the resource management needs of this unique watershed which occurs within the larger area known by TNA as the Clinch Valley Bioreserve.

Some highlights from the weekend included handling the continent's bulkiest caudate, the gargantuan and grotesque Hellbender (a new experience for many, including the author)! Three of these prehistoric "waterdogs" were caught and released in two locations. One large salamander even regurgitated a sizeable fish dinner before a horrified and captivated, camera-clad audience!

The most significant distributional discovery of the trip was the capture/documentation/subsequent release of three Black Kingsnakes, representing the first live vouchers for this species in the county.

A whole myriad of herps were part of the weekend experience, along the backroads of the county and the three major streams within the Copper Creek drainage which we visited. Sunday morning was a time for the traditional shutter-whirring over the temporary captives and the return of these creatures to the wild. As the group disbanded, some die-hards took advantage of the day and their proximity to Mount Rogers by visiting the Whitetop area to view the usual array of rare salamanders, including the chance to get some great photographs of the Shovel-nosed!

Following is a list of all species identified from the survey of the Copper Creek drainage and the respective stream area from which each was found. Specifics on these data may be obtained from VHS Newsletter Editor, Mike Pender.

VHS Copper Creek Survey

Table of Herpetofauna

C = Copper Creek

H = N. Fork Holston River

M = Big Mocassin Creek

Species totals for all Scott Co. localities:

9  Salamanders

3 Anurans

7  Turtles

5  Snakes

1  Lizard

25 species