My First Southern Illinois Excursion
Posted: July 8th, 2010, 2:27 pm
Hey everyone,
I am a new user native to Dupage County. However, I am attending Eastern Illinois University, and was very lucky to become a part of the Herpetology Lab. These photos (hopefully they'll be visible) were taken at Snake Road, Shawnee National Park, and other preserves in Illinois's Southern Counties, where EIU's Herp Lab tries to travel to as much as possible. This was my first time joining them.
First catch of the trip, a little Cave Salamander.
Long-tailed Salamander
We almost stepped on this Brown Snake as he was crossing Snake Road.
Eastern Kingsnake
Pretty belly
Ring-neck Snake
Broad-headed Skink.... Right?
Ha ha
Smooth Earth Snake
Finally! A Cottonmouth.
And it's still pretty, too.
Over the next 15 minutes of the photoshoot, everyone slowly got closer to it.
My personal favorite, Black Ratsnake! I love that muzzle.
Why did the Mudsnake cross the road??
To get to the other Siren! Thanks for that one, Jaymie.
Eastern Musk Turtle
This was awesome! We found this Cottonmouth just chilling while invenomating an unlucky Plainbelly Watersnake.
Diamondback Watersnake, with my blood on his labial scales.
Back to the Cottonmouth and Watersnake. The Cottonmouth ran off when we harassed it to much, so we left the two to be alone. Ten minutes later, the Cottonmouth came back and bit the Plainbelly in the face. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen.
Red-belly Snake
Anybody a bat expert??
Marbled Sally. (I apologize for the below par photography in these last photos, My camera is crap and it was getting dark.)
This Blue Racer wouldn't stand still, so I took a video instead. It's on my facebook page, and it shows the Racer rattling his tail on dry leaves.
Bird-Voice Tree Frog.
We almost stepped on this guy, too. Whew...
It was my first Copperhead, so I was a little hysterical...
We actually found a few herps on the road driving back. This juvenile Ratsnake was one of the luckier ones we happened upon..
I think our total for the trip was 39 species, including some other herps I didn't photo for one reason or another. I have a few more photos from other herping excursions I went on this summer, so I'll try and get those up ASAP.
Thanks for looking through these if you did.
Iwo Gross
I am a new user native to Dupage County. However, I am attending Eastern Illinois University, and was very lucky to become a part of the Herpetology Lab. These photos (hopefully they'll be visible) were taken at Snake Road, Shawnee National Park, and other preserves in Illinois's Southern Counties, where EIU's Herp Lab tries to travel to as much as possible. This was my first time joining them.
First catch of the trip, a little Cave Salamander.
Long-tailed Salamander
We almost stepped on this Brown Snake as he was crossing Snake Road.
Eastern Kingsnake
Pretty belly
Ring-neck Snake
Broad-headed Skink.... Right?
Ha ha
Smooth Earth Snake
Finally! A Cottonmouth.
And it's still pretty, too.
Over the next 15 minutes of the photoshoot, everyone slowly got closer to it.
My personal favorite, Black Ratsnake! I love that muzzle.
Why did the Mudsnake cross the road??
To get to the other Siren! Thanks for that one, Jaymie.
Eastern Musk Turtle
This was awesome! We found this Cottonmouth just chilling while invenomating an unlucky Plainbelly Watersnake.
Diamondback Watersnake, with my blood on his labial scales.
Back to the Cottonmouth and Watersnake. The Cottonmouth ran off when we harassed it to much, so we left the two to be alone. Ten minutes later, the Cottonmouth came back and bit the Plainbelly in the face. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen.
Red-belly Snake
Anybody a bat expert??
Marbled Sally. (I apologize for the below par photography in these last photos, My camera is crap and it was getting dark.)
This Blue Racer wouldn't stand still, so I took a video instead. It's on my facebook page, and it shows the Racer rattling his tail on dry leaves.
Bird-Voice Tree Frog.
We almost stepped on this guy, too. Whew...
It was my first Copperhead, so I was a little hysterical...
We actually found a few herps on the road driving back. This juvenile Ratsnake was one of the luckier ones we happened upon..
I think our total for the trip was 39 species, including some other herps I didn't photo for one reason or another. I have a few more photos from other herping excursions I went on this summer, so I'll try and get those up ASAP.
Thanks for looking through these if you did.
Iwo Gross