Yet again I have had the chance to visit a wonderful place where reptiles and amphibians are abundant and so are the herpetologists! A large group of fellow Canadians ventured to Illinois for our thanksgiving long weekend.
The purpose of this trip is simple- Have a great time camping, make new connections and see as many reptiles and amphibians as we can in one weekend!
This year was perfect weather for our trip. The first day was raining lightly which didn't discourage our group. Within a few minutes at our first stop I had flipped my first marbled salamander.
As the marbled was a lifer for me I was ecstatic about this but about 2m away from me we also discovered an adult and juvenile cottonmouth. Cottonmouths were the most common snake we found on the trip. Many of the juveniles were quite brightly patterned while the older snakes appeared much more uniform dark in colouration.
The rain brought out frogs and salamanders in huge numbers. I found many lifers including smallmouth, marbled and mole salamanders. These are all species I missed out on last year because it was to cold and dry on the weekend we went. Warm-ish and wet is perfect for these!
A few reptiles were out and about despite the rain. I finally got to see an Eastern Box Turtle that hadn't been frightened into it's shell for hours on end. One downside to going in large groups is that many people want to touch animals which ruins my chances of getting natural photos. Box turtles are especially tricky since they will hole up inside their closed shell for an extremely long time if they are disturbed to much or picked up. But.. everyone was great this year and there we a lot of things to be seen!
Nightfall found us watching our step carefully as frogs and salamanders were at our feet frequently. In one place we discovered over 100 cave salamanders mixed in with long tailed salamanders and newts. This was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. A single dull cliff face with many small cracks was speckled with these long elegant orange creatures.
My favorite toad, the Fowler's toad, made an appearance that weekend which is always very exiting but even more so where the new species of frogs I had the chance to see! Juvenile Bird-voiced treefrogs and green treefrogs also loved the misty wet night and we found many through the forest. They showed up with their bright green skin standing out very nicely against the brown/yellow leaf litter. Not many were found on any vegetation.
The next day was bright and warm- a perfect day to look for reptiles. We saw many things that day but for me the highlights were a Mississippi Green Watersnake, Smooth Earthsnake, Rough Greensnake and a Slimy Salamander.
Most of these wonderful creatures we just found with luck as they crossed the paths infront of us. But others were much trickier to find and took hours of searching before we were rewarded.
As the gorgeous Mississippi Green reminded us all- Snakes like to be left alone and this aggressive posture is a warning that it is ready to bite. Even if you just want to move a leaf out of the photo they don't have any sympathy. But none the less this was probably my biggest highlight of the weekend. This snake was big, sleek and posed wonderful for photographs.
The only things that could have made this trip better would have been a mud snake or a timber rattlesnake but, that is asking a bit much since it was already an absolutely amazing weekend.
PS: Fun fact > Western Ribbonsnakes have two dots on the top of their heads (which allows you to tell them apart from Eastern Ribbonsnakes) but this can appear like a heart because they look to be fused.
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