Snake Road 2014

As tradition demanded there was a very long drive down to Illinois for the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. This started out getting picked up in Toronto and driving down (in shifts) with 3 others to meet a wonderful caravan of like-minded herpers for a weekend of camping, herptiles and well the usual shenanigans.  We started off with a trip to the Walmart in Anna for cheap food and booze. Every set up tents in record time and after a good dose of coffee later we were back on the road... this time the "Snake Road" which is actually closed down for the snake migration each year and is a protected area.

The rain brought out many neat amphibians our first day. We didn't have to much success with snakes but the Western Earth Snake was quite a nice surprise.

What started as a tiring trip became an exhausting one. Lack of sleep added up but the troop was determined so we kept searching for our most desirable species. We continued to find salamanders, frogs, skinks, lizards, turtles... And AT LAST!! After two previous trips to the road seeing many a cool herp, I finally saw my holy grail of snake road... a mud snake.

 This gorgeous adult female mud snake was a lovely end to an amazing trip and made it a priceless experience even though the reunion with great friends is rewarding enough. 

The trip ended as any thanksgiving usually goes... by eating birds until you feel like the one who got stuffed. In Illinois we just changed this a bit by eating a whole lot of all you can eat fried chicken instead of roasted turkey. Then proceeded to enjoy a campfire to the wee hours of the morning at which point we drive all the way back to Ontario. Yes there was almost as much driving as there was herping but we made the most of the short time we had there.

Reptiles and Amphibians of Holguin Province, Cuba

Although the trip wasn't focused on looking for reptiles and amphibians I always manage to keep my eyes open and find a few along the way.

Cuban Ameiva -Ameiva auberi

Cuban Blue Anole - Anolis allisoni

Oriente Giant Anole - Anolis noblei

Oriente Giant Anole - Anolis noblei

Cuban Side-blotched Curlytail - Leipcephalus macropus

Amphibians weren't really common at the resort except when I found a few creeks and small drainage streams in the areas nearby.

Cuban Tree Frog

Cuban Tree Frog

Cuban Tree Frog

And as always you find other very cool creatures while out and about at night....

Taratula

Spring in Ontario

Ring-necked Snake

  What can beat a long weekend camping with a bunch of friends... Not much but throwing a bunch of amazing animals into the mix definitely helps! An annual May long weekend tradition is to go to the National Park and in exchange for giving them valuable data on reptile and amphibian abundance/locations we are allowed to stay in the park before it opens for the season! 

Eastern Milksnake

 Despite temperatures going to -3 C and having a few patches of rain go over, every day was great for finding reptiles! They were eager to catch the sun when it was out and it saved us the trouble of getting up really early because it was too cold for the things we wanted to see anyways. The earliest reptile out in the morning was a basking Rattlesnake at 9am.

Massasauga Rattlesnake

 My favorite sighting for the weekend was a juvenile Eastern Hognose Snake. Just found on the side of a path the little tyke did his full 'puff adder' display for us trying to make his tiny self as big as possible. These snakes will rarely bite but are quite the actors! If flattening their heads and giving the traditional 'cobra look' doesn't scare a predator (or interested humans) off then the snake will play dead with such enthusiasm that it will move it's body back into it's dead pose.

Eastern Hognose Snake

Although we did hear my favorite amphibian (Gray Treefrog) on the trip we couldn't locate one. We did however manage to find two Four-toed Salamanders which are usually quite restricted to vernal pools with mossy edges. At the base of the tail you can see a constriction that can help identify these salamanders from Red-backed Salamanders in the gray phase without needing to get a look at their very tiny feet. You can also tell them apart by their very white belly with black spots.

Four-toed Salamander

We are never in time to see the mass congregations of breeding Spotted or Blue-spotted Salamanders in these vernal pools but we do frequently find these egg masses clinging to sticks or other debris.

All in all a great weekend with some great friends. Can't wait for the next trip!

Delta Marsh

 The drive from Winnipeg to Delta Beach is probably the flattest I have ever seen in this world. Patches of trees by the farmers houses or rows used to block wind from the farmlands are the only breaks in the horizon. Even these are few and pretty far between... BUT when you arrive at Delta Marsh the scenery changes from flat agricultural lands to gorgeous expanses of cattail marsh as far as the eye can see. 

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Volunteering at the Delta Marsh Banding Station was a great experience despite the weather being cold and cloudy most of the time. A lot of birds were using the marsh close to the edges (because the parts further out were still frozen) and scrubby forests in between giving a great view of many species. The lifers I got were ridiculously common species in Manitoba but I had actually had never seen a Yellow-headed Blackbird or White Pelican before!

Yellow-headed Blackbird

The cold weather also kept a lot of species which would normally have passed through in the area. It was great to see Rough-legged Hawks along the roadsides. These gorgeous birds are one of my favorites.

Holguin Cuba

I've always been spontaneous but this trip takes the cake. I found out the night before leaving that I was going to Cuba the next morning. I obviously couldn't turn down the last minute and off season deal.

Arriving to a Cuba on a rainy night would have been perfect for looking for frogs but the forecast was rain every night for the next three days so naturally after the plane ride I relaxed and drank. Our resort (Rio Sol de Luna y Mares) was quite remote and each side had a different wild ecosystem. One side had a wide but somewhat deep lagoon with mangroves and the other had a park with forest and scrub on the rocky coast.

The morning saw us at the lagoon where Snowy and Great Egrets had amassed in numbers. We saw many waterbirds that morning just visiting the Lagoon and walking around the resort.

Northern Shoveler
Pied-billed Grebe
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
American Coot (There is no way I could tell from a Carribean Coot)
White-crowned Pigeon
White-winged Dove
Common Ground Dove
Cuban Green Woodpecker
Eastern Kingbird
Loggerhead Kingbird
Red-eyed Vireo
Black-whiskered Vireo
Cuban Martin
Red-legged Thrush
Northern Mockingbird
Yellow-faced Grassquit
Tawny-shouldered Blackbird
Cuban Blackbird
Greater Antillean Grackle
House Sparrow

What I didn't know at the beginning of this trip is that the night I arrived would be the ONLY night it rained for the entire trip. That is great for most people but I hopelessly tried to find amphibians every night with very little luck.

That day was a very nice warm sunny day with reptiles crawling all over the resort.

A Snowy Winter

Female Snowy Owl

One of the many perks to surviving the cold Canadian winters in the Ottawa area are the owls that come down from the north in search of food. When their food is in shortage or there isn't enough space for owls making territories up north many (mostly juveniles) move south in search of 'greener pastures'.

Female Snowy Owl

Really what they find are snow covered farm fields along the Ottawa and Rideau Rivers down to the Kingston area.  Last year Ottawa saw a lot of boreal species of owls including great gray, hawk owl and boreal owls. This year over 42 snowy owls have been seen in the Ottawa area. These owls are one of the heaviest owls in North America.

Juvenile Male Snowy Owl

Birding for these diurnal (daytime) owls is one of the easiest ways to look for birds. Drive down country back roads keeping an eye for a large white bird on a telephone pole or in the middle of a field. Even on cold cloudy days you can see them along roadsides and in farmers fields from the warmth of a car. I was lucky enough to see 4 of them in one morning/afternoon, but other days I was not so lucky.

The big bright yellow eyes are characteristic of diurnal (daytime) owls. Females are larger and more patterned than males which can appear completely white as adults.These birds will soon be returning north to create breeding territories and make their nests (which they create on the ground) in early spring.  I am always very excited to see when these spectacular birds will return to Ottawa next.

Juvenile Male Snowy Owl