Hey guys,
College has kept me busy, and I've had very little time to herp this past year, but by mid-May I had finished my finals and since then I've had more than my share of outdoors time. In this long post I'll do my best to describe the herping adventures I've had the pleasure to experience since May.
Just after school got out, I went up to Ontario to visit my grandparents. They are 85 and 91 or so, yet they love nothing more than to spend the day outdoors, hiking and birdwatching. I first went with them and my aunt (who is an avid birdwatcher) to Point Pelee National Park to catch part of the spring bird migration:
Canada Warbler (Cardellina canadensis) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Chestnut-sided Warbler (Setophaga pensylvanica) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Blackburnian Warbler (Setophaga fusca) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Cape May Warbler (Setophaga tigrina) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
We saw well over 100 flying herp species that weekend, and I would love to post more photos, but I know you guys want to see non-flying herp photos so I'll move on (you can find more bird photos from that weekend on my flickr).
The next weekend we headed up to my grandparents' cottage in the Kawartha Lakes region of Ontario. They and about 30 other families bought an entire county up there in the 50s or so; the land was super cheap because of a severe post-logging fire which had just ripped through the area, burning all the way down to bedrock in most places. Now it is a forested paradise, full of clear lakes and pristine marshes.
Lake at Sunrise by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Marshy Creek by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
On our first evening there, I went out to a marshy area, where I found several leopard frogs and this ribbon snake:
Eastern Ribbon Snake (Thamnophis sauritus septentrionalis) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Painted turtles abound in the area's marshes:
Midland Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta marginata) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
The next morning I went for a hike with my aunt through a powerline cut to look for snakes. On the way through the woods, I flipped up this blue-spotted salamander:
Blue-spotted Salamander (Ambystoma laterale) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Our best find in the cut itself was this very pretty milk snake:
Eastern Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
On the way back, we came upon this blanding's turtle crossing the road. While rare in most places, they seem to be doing fairly well in this large expanse of wilderness.
Blanding's Turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
We spent the afternoon swimming and visiting my grandparents' favorite old haunts. It was eye-opening to hear them describe how barren the land was when they came, and to see them point out tall, healthy maple trees and describe how they had planted them years ago. Their stories of this land really demonstrate how resilient nature can be if we give it a chance.
The next morning I went farther afield to search for an elusive but gorgeous snake... the smooth green snake. I had never seen one in the area, but my mom recalls finding one in her childhood there, and small rocky openings in the forest provide promising habitat. After an hour or so, we came upon one such opening, where a several inch thick layer of moss was all that covered the bedrock, and under a dry, decayed log I found an opaque individual of my target. The very next rock yielded this stunning specimen:
Smooth Green Snake (Opheodrys vernalis) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Smooth Green Snake (Opheodrys vernalis) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
After that it was time to leave. On the way out we stopped by an old building, where I found this adult milk snake:
Eastern Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
I can't help but post a couple bird photos from the weekend:
Blackpoll Warbler (Setophaga striata) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
More scenery photos from the area:
Lakeside Marsh by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Inland Marsh by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
After that, I headed back to my home in Kentucky for a couple days, before embarking on a trip with my herping buddy Kevin Hutcheson to the promised land - the southern Appalachians. On this trip we wound our way through the Cumberland Plateau of eastern Kentucky to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, returning just in time for Kevin to graduate high school.
We left on a Thursday afternoon and drove into coal mining country, where we would be spending the next day and a half. About an hour before nightfall we arrived at a deep ravine surrounded by sandstone rock faces and filled with tall hemlocks and thick rhododendron. Here, on a set of large boulders, we quickly found what may be my favorite animal of all time:
Green Salamander (Aneides aeneus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Boy did I miss seeing these guys!
Green Salamander (Aneides aeneus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
As dusk fell, we had the pleasure to witness them out on the rock faces hunting. Along one sandstone overhang, we also saw a couple of these eastern Kentucky specialties:
Cumberland Plateau Salamander (Plethodon kentucki) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Cumberland Plateau Salamander (Plethodon kentucki) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Also seen were several seal and slimy salamanders, a copperhead, and a worm snake in the process of eating a worm.
Leaving the ravine, we hopped in the car and headed for a country road along a xeric ridgetop. It had already been an hour since sunset, but temperatures were decent and our hopes were high for some snakes. On our very first pass, we turned a corner to find this beauty:
Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Nothing else turned up for the rest of the night, but that was more than enough. Kevin and I have had a lot of trouble finding timbers in Kentucky, and this specimen was far prettier than what we had hoped for.
The next morning, we headed back to the same mountain, where we ascended a rocky powerline cut. Along the way we found a nice copperhead:
Northern Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix contortrix) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Towards the top, we reached an area where open expanses of exposed sandstone bedrock broke the forest cover.
Open Rocky Mountainside by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Here we found another copperhead, as well a narrowmouth toad, a rather uncommon find for us in eastern Kentucky:
Eastern Narrowmouth Toad (Gastrophryne carolinensis) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Along the edge of one opening was a pile of sandstone boulders. Kevin and I both felt like this was the spot. We carefully crossed the area and scanned for snakes, finding nothing, but then Kevin looked back and spotted our second timber of the trip coiled between two boulders. It quickly slid under a boulder, so we continued searching the openings, deciding to return before we left. When we came back, there was again a timber coiled there, and as we took photos yet another came out beside it, before both vanished into their sandstone refuge.
Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Next we headed up to Black Mountain, Kentucky's highest point. Afterwards we visited a high-elevation forest of yellow birch, maple, black cherry, and yellow buckeye nearby:
High-elevation Deciduous Forest by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Here, the mountain dusky salamander, a rare and restricted species in most of eastern Kentucky, abounds.
Allegheny Mountain Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus ochrophaeus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
We had a couple hours left before dark, so we headed to another deep, moist stream valley full of hemlock, birch, and rhododendron.
Eastern Kentucky Rocky Stream by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Here we found a decent selection of eastern Kentucky salamanders - cumberland plateau, slimy, seal, northern dusky, black mountain dusky, green - and a wood frog.
Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvatica) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Black Mountain Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus welteri) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Northern Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus fuscus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
After a quick pizza dinner, we headed for what we expected to be the trip's hardest target - the wehrle's salamander. This species's range lies mostly across Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, but a tiny isolated population of unique, yellow-spotted individuals exists in the Cumberland Mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee. We headed up a sketchy dirt road barely navigable in my wimpy Prius at dusk, then began to work our way down, shining rock outcrops the whole way.
At the beginning of the night we found a large rat snake along a cliff face. Throughout the night, longtail, seal, mountain dusky, slimy, and cumberland plateau salamanders proved abundant, and one rogue ravine salamander turned up. We must've seen at least 40 of these guys:
Cumberland Plateau Salamander (Plethodon kentucki) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Most of the outcrops we searched were sandstone, but we got to a short stretch where shale layers were exposed. We thought this was promising, and clambered up the steep scree of shale gravel to the base of the outcrops, where low and behold...
Wehrle's Salamander (Plethodon wehrlei) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
...I spotted this juvenile wehrle's salamander. Success!
The next morning, we said goodbye to Kentucky, and headed southeast.
Cumberland Mountains, Kentucky by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
The fog in this photo conveniently hides the strip mining project that has destroyed much of this hillside. Strip mining has obliterated so many ridges just like the one we found the timbers on, and degraded so many picturesque stream valleys like the ones we visited with siltation and poisonous chemicals.
Anyhow...
Our destination for the day was a hanging valley in the valley and ridge region of Tennessee. The valley and ridge has some very strange topography, with flat meandering streams atop mountains; it also seems to be good habitat for a special salamander...
We arrived at our destination and began flipping logs along a flat stream valley. We found a longtail and a couple slimies, but overall finds were scarce. However, under a large rotting log I lucked out and found our target:
Midland Mud Salamander (Pseudotriton montanus diasticus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
We already felt lucky, but the next stream valley over produced two more of these pink beauties! Both were poking their heads out of crayfish burrows under logs, and despite our efforts we could catch neither. Later that day along another stream we found another adult mud salamander, two recent metamorphs, and a recent metamorph red salamander. We ended our exploration of the valley and ridge by visiting a waterfall where we found the only southern two-lined salamander of the entire trip.
That night we drove into the fringes of the Blue Ridge Mountains - salamander heaven! We hiked along a ridge with moist forests of hemlock and hardwoods, home to a whopping 5 Plethodon species. Along the margins of the road where we parked, toads and treefrogs were breeding and carolina mountain dusky salamanders were feeding:
American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Cope's Gray Treefrog (Hyla chrysoscelis) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Carolina Mountain Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus carolinensis) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
As we headed into the woods, we began finding these charismatic kings of the forest:
Yonahlossee Salamander (Plethodon yonahlossee) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Truly one of my favorite salamanders!
Yonahlossee Salamander (Plethodon yonahlossee) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
The locality's other Plethodon species also made an appearance - redback, white-spotted slimy, and northern graycheek salamanders. I still don't understand how so many species in a single genus can coexist without direct competition!
Northern Gray-cheeked Salamander (Plethodon montanus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
White-spotted Slimy Salamander (Plethodon cylindraceus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
And after much searching we found one final Plethodon species: the weller's salamander. This species tends to only occupy the highest elevations; as a result it is especially threatened by climate change. This locality is at the lower limit of their elevation range, so they can be hard to find.
Weller's Salamander (Plethodon welleri) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
The next morning we headed up to Mount Mitchell, the highest point east of the Rockies:
Southern Appalachian Spruce-fir Forest by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
The drive up along the Blue Ridge Parkway is absolutely stunning:
The Black Mountains by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Deciduous Forest in the Black Mountains by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
We also spent some time at a spruce-fir forest nearby, where we found the diminutive northern pygmy salamander:
Northern Pygmy Salamander (Desmognathus organi) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
There was no shortage of carolina mountain dusky salamanders there:
Carolina Mountain Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus carolinensis) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Next we headed to an interesting boggy area, with forested wetlands full of river birch and red maple:
Western North Carolina Wetland Complex by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Here we braved the fierce mosquito population to find some interesting salamanders that aren't too common up in the mountains:
Four-toed Salamander (Hemidactylium scutatum) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Three-lined Salamander (Eurycea guttolineata) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
We also found our first Appalachian woodland salamanders of the trip here:
Appalachian Woodland Salamander (Plethodon teyahalee) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
That evening, we headed to a cold, rocky river to search for a truly unique animal. The hellbender, North America's largest amphibian, is threatened by widespread degradation of water quality due to pollution and siltation, but the clear and clean rivers of western North Carolina serve as a last stronghold for the species. We spend about an hour wading up and down the river, and just as I was giving up, I heard a primordial scream from Kevin - he had found this:
Eastern Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
We were giddy with joy. How could this trip possibly be better?
The next morning we headed towards the Great Smoky Mountains. Along the way, we stopped in a mid-elevation deciduous forest, where we found a couple more Plethodon (as well as a few common Desmognathus species):
Southern Gray-cheeked Salamander (Plethodon metcalfi) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Southern Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon serratus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
It was mid-afternoon when we reached the Smokies. We headed up to the fog-shrouded spruce-fir forests at the park's highest elevations, where we parked and began our search. The first part of the trail consists of young, deciduous growth where the frasir fir trees have been hit hard by the balsam woolly adelgid. Though the forest here has been degraded, the seeps are still home to interesting salamanders:
Santeetlah Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus santeetlah) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Blue Ridge Spring Salamander (Gyrinophilus porphyriticus dunni) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
After about a mile, we entered some more intact, mature spruce-fir forest, where we began finding terrestrial salamanders in force.
The southern cousin of the northern pygmy salamander we saw the previous day, genetically isolated by the French Broad River:
Southern Pygmy Salamander (Desmognathus wrighti) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
An especially pretty imitator salamander:
Imitator Salamander (Desmognathus imitator) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
The red-cheeked salamander, a species found only in the confines of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Our country sure has a wonderful national park system!
Red-cheeked Salamander (Plethodon jordani) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Also seen were ocoee salamanders, our third representative of the semi-terrestrial mountain dusky salamander complex of the trip.
We also found this garter snake, active despite temperatures in the mid 50s Fahrenheit and heavy fog. Garter snakes can be pretty common at high elevations in the Smokies, although one enlightened hiker we met informed us that they were in fact copperheads.
Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
As dusk fell, we headed to the tiny range of the Cheoah Bald salamander. We hiked along a rocky hillside to a couple old overgrown rockslides, where we found 4 pretty individuals.
Cheoah Bald Salamander (Plethodon cheoah) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Also seen were two Appalachian woodland salamanders.
We set up our tent at a secluded campsite in the Unicoi Mountains. It was late, and we were very tired, but just as we were preparing to go to sleep, it began to pour. We had to go out cruising.
At first we found little besides sticks, leaves, and the occasional spotted dusky or blue ridge two-lined salamander, but we persisted and the night did not disappoint - we found four of these scarlet hot dogs:
Black-chinned Red Salamander (Pseudotriton ruber schencki) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
And in among the two-lined salamanders, we spotted this guy, a young junaluska salamander - my second ever!
Junaluska Salamander (Eurycea junaluska) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
We woke up late the next morning, and headed into the Nantahala Range, where we ticked another endemic Plethodon off our list - the red-legged salamander:
Red-legged Salamander (Plethodon shermani) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
We spent the remaining part of the day searching for the shovel-nosed salamander, a highly aquatic Desmognathus species of the Southern Appalachian fast-flowing streams. High water levels due to a rainy week made things hard, but the second spot we visited looked very promising nonetheless - clear water and an abundance of riffles. After about half an hour of searching, I flipped a rock in a fast-flowing section and lifted my net to see a large shovel-nosed salamander. I joyously shouted to Kevin, but then I looked down to see the 1-inch-wide salamander sliding through the half-inch mesh of my net! No shovel-nosed salamander photos for me!
That night we went road cruising again for junaluska salamanders, but cruising conditions weren't great and we were quite tired from the past few days. We did, however, find a couple funny-looking longtail salamanders.
Long-tailed Salamander (Eurycea longicauda) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
The next day we headed to a mid-elevation site in the Unicois. One of our favorite spots in the region, this trail through picturesque hardwood and old-growth hemlock forests is home to a couple of the region's cooler salamanders:
Tellico Salamander (Plethodon aureolus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Seepage Salamander (Desmognathus aeneus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
I also took the time to photograph a couple of the more common species from the region:
Ocoee Salamander (Desmognathus ocoee) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Black-bellied Salamander (Desmognathus quadramaculatus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
And with that we concluded our trip, and headed back to Kentucky. Rain nearly every night may have *dampened* our spirits and made camping difficult, but we saw nearly every target we searched for, and got to spend a week in what I believe is the most beautiful place on earth.
A parting scenery shot:
The Unicoi Mountains by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
I had barely been home four days from this outstanding trip when Kevin and I embarked on yet another herping adventure, this time to Illinois. We owe a lot of our finds on this trip to some midwestern friends of Kevin's; I'd particularly like to thank Nathan Kutok, Evan Kirincich, and Isaiah "Loopy" Lieberenz for their help.
We spent most of the first day driving up. However, we did stop on the way up to find a super cool snake species - the kirtland's snake:
Kirtland's Snake (Clonophis kirtlandii) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
This species once occupied wet prairies across the midwest, and the disappearance of that habitat has caused this species to decline throughout its range. However, it has managed to hang on in some surprising circumstances - the two individuals we found were in an urban ditch between a four-lane highway and the mowed front laws of a suburban neighborhood.
The next morning we planned to meet up with Evan and Loopy to search some sandy areas in northeastern Illinois for snakes. We had some time to kill before meeting up with them, so we visited an interesting isolated population of southern two-lined salamanders in the Illinois River watershed south of Chicago. Two-lined salamanders proved to be as common here as anywhere else we've seen them.
Southern Two-lined Salamander (Eurycea cirrigera) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Next we joined Evan and Loopy, and headed to some cool sandy prairie habitat:
Northeastern Illinois Sandy Prairie Habitat by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Our first find was this large bull snake, spotted by Loopy sunning on a pile of cinderblocks:
Bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Next up was my first blue racer, an in-shed individual spotted sunning by Kevin, followed by this beauty flipped by Evan:
Blue Racer (Coluber constrictor foxii) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
We went to a couple other sites, which didn't produce much besides racerunners. Things were heating up so I didn't expect much more that day, yet under a large board in a field Loopy and I found two very pretty milk snakes.
Eastern Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Next up was a young bull snake we cruised between sites:
Bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Our last site was a field we walked, hoping for a hognose snake. None were found, but their prey were out:
Fowler's Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
After that great morning, we said goodbye to Evan and Loopy for now, and made the long drive around Chicago, where we met up with a couple of my college friends. We were amazed to step out of the car in the Chicago suburbs to mid-60s temperatures; just south of Chicago temperatures had been in the high 70s! That evening we visited a small board line in a prairie.
Prairie Habitat by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
With temps in the 50s, we weren't expecting much, yet the 7 or 8 boards produced 4 Chicago garter snakes, 1 eastern plains garter snake, a brown snake, and a fox snake!
Midland Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi wrightorum) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Eastern Fox Snake (Pantherophis gloydi) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
As dusk fell, we met up with Evan and herped another AC site in a small field in the suburbs, finding more browns and Chicago garters, and another fox. A great end to a great day!
Chicago Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis semifasciatus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Eastern Fox Snake (Pantherophis gloydi) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
The next day we went out with a big group including Loopy and Nathan, and visited some of Nathan's spots in the northern Chicago suburbs. We found quite a few Chicago garter snakes, but besides a water snake no other snakes seemed to be showing up. We did find a couple nice blue-spotted salamanders in a wooded preserve though:
Blue-spotted Salamander (Ambystoma laterale) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
After lunch the group split up, and we headed with Loopy to another wooded preserve:
Chicagoland Urban Forest by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Here we found more garters, and several nice red-bellied snakes:
Northern Redbelly Snake (Storeria occipitomaculata occipitomaculata) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Northern Redbelly Snake (Storeria occipitomaculata occipitomaculata) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
We also found a tiger salamander - a species Kevin and I generally only find by road cruising during breeding season.
Eastern Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma tigrinum) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
We went with Loopy to one final spot close to his house, which produced our third fox, and a whole bunch of plains garters.
Eastern Fox Snake (Pantherophis gloydi) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Eastern Plains Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix radix) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
That evening, Kevin and I drove on to the northwest corner of Illinois, home to some interesting species with distributions centered around the plains. That night we saw a couple gray treefrogs around our campsite - these were the northern species unlike the ones we see in Kentucky.
Common Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
The next morning we woke up early and headed to a sandy prairie, where we would search for our primary target:
Northwestern Illinois Sandy Prairie by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
It wasn't long before I walked up a couple ornate box turtle. This was a fun find - we rarely herp in their range.
Ornate Box Turtle (Terrapene ornata ornata) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Then Kevin spotted our target species active on a bare patch of sand - a gorgeous western hognose snake:
Western Hognose Snake (Heterodon nasicus) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
It was quick to play dead:
Western Hognose Snake (Heterodon nasicus) Playing Dead by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
After that we were sort of at a loss for what to do. We had expected it to take much longer to find a hognose than it did. We drove up to an area home to lined snakes, but lack of cover made the search futile. We did find a couple map turtles crossing the road on the way up.
Common Map Turtle (Graptemys geographica) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
Next we stopped by a promising looking abandoned building, where we found an enormous bull snake stretched out on the ground. We drove over to Iowa and ate lunch, just to check another state off the list, and we drove around some wetlands, finding many painted turtles but no blanding's turtles. We also took some photos of the mighty Mississippi:
The Mighty Mississippi by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
With little left to do in the northwest, we drove down to the central part of the state. On the way we stopped along the Illinois River in a desperate hope to see a smooth softshell turtle; we did see a softshell, but photos revealed it was a spiny. That night, we walked a rocky road cut in central Illinois, where we found a pretty garter snake, and Kevin's lifer prairie kingsnake (my second ever):
Prairie Kingsnake (Lampropeltis calligaster) by Ananth Miller-Murthy, on Flickr
The next morning we got up early and headed to a rocky lakeshore home to graham's crayfish snakes. We spotted tons of water snakes, and two of our targets, but they were both quite skittish and we got no photos. We began the driving back eastward, stopping in the 95+ degree heat to walk around in some massasauga rattlesnake habitat, and arrived home that evening.
And with that our adventures were over. We had travelled from the eastern US's highest point to the Mississippi River. We had run through just about everything on Kevin's playlist - the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Arcade Fire, Johnny Cash, Black Sabbath, R.E.M., and everything in between - at least once. And we had seen more than enough herps to make up for 8 months of academic struggles and New England temperatures. I'm already looking forward to next time!
-Ananth
Early Summer Herping - Ontario, Appalachians, Illinois
Moderator: Scott Waters
- Aneides Aeneus
- Posts: 47
- Joined: November 15th, 2014, 8:54 am
- Location: Lexington, KY
Re: Early Summer Herping - Ontario, Appalachians, Illinois
All I can say is "Epic"...
Herping at its finest...
I cannot even fault the playlist....
Craig Barnes
Herping at its finest...
I cannot even fault the playlist....
Craig Barnes
- BillMcGighan
- Posts: 2362
- Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:23 am
- Location: Unicoi, TN
Re: Early Summer Herping - Ontario, Appalachians, Illinois
Lots of good stuff, Ananth.
Re: Early Summer Herping - Ontario, Appalachians, Illinois
Really incredible trip you had. I'm in Central Illinois and I'm sure you weren't but an hour from me looking for your last targets. Let me know if you come through Peoria area anytime. I'm happy to give a small tour.
Justin Michels
Justin Michels
- Aneides Aeneus
- Posts: 47
- Joined: November 15th, 2014, 8:54 am
- Location: Lexington, KY
Re: Early Summer Herping - Ontario, Appalachians, Illinois
Thanks so much guys! Justin, I'll definitely shoot you a PM if I'm ever in the Peoria area.
-Ananth
-Ananth
- Jeroen Speybroeck
- Posts: 826
- Joined: June 29th, 2011, 1:56 am
- Location: Belgium
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Re: Early Summer Herping - Ontario, Appalachians, Illinois
Great species array! Love those woods....