It's been a long time since I've last posted to FHF...just been so busy and didn't really herp all too much at all last year. Anyway...I have something to share and something I'm pretty proud of, so hopefully it is well-received here as well.

For the past few years my family has taking a fishing vacation up to Burnett Co. WI. A long time ago I had heard about there being a population of bullsnakes in that county. I found a good spot only a 15 minute drive from our vacation cabin, which I try to hit it up at least once a year. 2 years ago I found a shed and then last year I found one dead on the road, so I knew they were there but didn't ever find a live one. This year, my brother and I went up late morning to look around and we found another shed, but no live snakes. I was kind of bummed that I was so close, but yet so far away. I decided that on my return trip home, I would stop and check there again.

I checked all the same spots that I normally do...3 locations that I know should have them. I drove to my last spot, and almost didn't check it because it was getting later than I wanted it to be and rain was coming. On one side of the road is about an acre sized patch of prime habitat, and on the other size of the road is just a narrow strip between the road and water, maybe 1/8 acre in size. I checked the larger area and was crossing up and over the road and a bullsnake was crawling across! Another minute of searching and the snake would have crossed right behind me and I never would have seen it! I finally got lucky.

Here it is though, a nice big 5ft 9inch snake.

very dark snake. i like it. the southern ones have more brown in the mid section. nice work. so how come no hog pictures. i've decided to call you "the blow-snake king" for this year.

shoot me a ring when you have a day off.

-ben

Yeah, this one is much darker than the one I found a few weeks ago further south.

Hognose photos will be coming also...I just haven't gone through them yet. I didn't take too many up north because I just found those few around Stevens Point 2 weeks ago. I should have though, since the ones here were going into shed and the northern ones looked a bit better.

I have off next week Wed, but I guess we are going to the Dells and Mt. Olympus that day with the niece and nephews.

we'll make it happen eventually. summer gets slow anyways. i compared this one to a six footer from the SW. there is more brown in the middle of mine. i like the one you got. very dark. it would be cool to find one that is all black. would look very northern pine-like.

-ben

Burnett??? Wow, that is up there, I never knew. Find any northern prairie skinks in the same habitat?

We did...but didn't get any photos. I know for sure that I saw at least 4 darting around, and my brother saw a couple and accidentally broke the tail off of one while trying to capture it.

COol. THat was one of the only species I didn't see when I lived in Wisconsin, that and the queen snake. I didn't really get that into the NW part of the state though.

Nice looking bull! On the MN side they are common as far north as Chisago Co. There is even a record from Carlton Co. How close to the MN border are your spots (no need for exact locations, feel free to PM if you prefer).

Keep an eye out for five-lined skinks... there are a few populations in NW WI.

Thanks,
-Chris

That spot is only about 10 miles from the MN border...maybe even less.

I've seen five-lined skinks in the Black River State Forest around Eau Claire area, but nothing north of that. I'll have to keep my eyes open for them if I get back up that way this summer.

Love those WI bulls. Beautiful.

how can you not love 'em? beautiful and mild-manered.

-ben

I should add that I've only seen two. One at the Henry Vilas Zoo, the other at a Madison pet store (back when that was legal).

Oh, and I might have seen one a bit north of Dodgeville but my brother wasn't paying attention to his side of the path and about stepped on it scaring it into the weeds. I'm still mad at him.

I now have two Bullsnakes in my freezer from the end of my street two houses away. They're moving right now. I had one in the yard again, last week. Lucky for me too. I've had a terrible rabbit problem, but it's tapering off. I wonder if the Bullsnakes move when the rabbits are breeding?

Aren't rabbits always breeding Should be on the bullsnakes all summer long then, right.

I was getting a lot of reports from my family in Southwestern WI of bullsnakes moving around my grandmother's farm...that was just a couple weeks ago now.

Your 6 footer ben? I believe I'm the one that told you to look by that rock when we were there....

stu, nowhere did i claim "my" six footer. i could have also been referring to another six footer that "i" got last fall. besides, i would have made it to that rock eventually, but i'm good calling it "our" six footer.

hope we can make it work next week. glad you are back.

-ben

Awesome find man. Although Gophers are one of the most common snakes in the US, it never ceases to amaze me the variety in appearance in each state. This is one found in my neighbors' front yard here in AZ. Different eh?

For sure! I've seen the gopher snakes in AZ as well...just a couple years ago we made a trip to AZ and southern CA and saw the gophers and the Sonoran gophers. I've also seen them up in Wyoming in Yellowstone park. They are similar everywhere, but different everywhere too. It is pretty cool to see the variation.