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.

Thanksgiving Herpetologist Style

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.

Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma opacum)

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. 

Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus)

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!

Smallmouth Salamander (Ambystoma texanum)

Mole Salamander (Ambystoma talpoideum)

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!

Eastern Ribbonsnake (Thamnophis sauritus)

Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina)

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.

Cave Salamander (Eurycea lucifuga)

Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens)

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.

Bird-voiced Treefrog (Hyla avivoca)

Green Treefrog (Hyla cinerea)

Green Treefrog (Hyla cinerea)

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.

Smooth Earthsnake (Virginia valeriae)

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.

Rough Greensnake (Opheodrys aestivus)

Rough Greensnake (Opheodrys aestivus)

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.

Mississippi Green Watersnake (Nerodia cyclopion)

Mississippi Green Watersnake (Nerodia cyclopion)

Slimy Salamander (Plethodon glutinosus)

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.

Western Ribbonsnake (Thamnophis proximus)

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.

The road home from S. Illinois

We took the scenic route home and tried to check out a place a local herper told us would be good for red milksnakes. The day was sunny and the road must have been a great basking site because we saw more dead on the road snakes than anything else. This included cottonmouth, watersnakes and a gorgeous red milk snake right where the local told us they'd be.

The first live snake we saw was a black rat snake in between juvenile and adult colouration. It  was right on the side of the road so we had a nice chance to get some pictures with this very docile snake.

Photos of the Black Rat Snake

Black Rat Snake (Pantherophis obsoletus) and I

A quick pull off to an abandoned road led out to a nice small lake where we saw our last herps of the weekend. Turtles were basking in the sunlight on the large logs that were near the shoreline.

Butterflies were out enjoying the fall wildflowers as we packed back into the car and headed home. This question mark caught my eye.  They are quite spectacular and fairly common in North America.

Question Mark Butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis)

Heron pond and the tracks

Our second day there was equally as cold but at least sunny.  Heading over to heron pond  we  had more of a turtle day than anything else. Flipping logs in the forest just produced some interesting invertebrates but no amphibians or reptiles.

Male Bess Beetle

Male and female bess beetles

River cooters and red-earned sliders were plentiful along the large slow moving rivers in the area.  They all seamed to be enjoying the sunshine just like we were. 

Red-eared sliders and River Cooters

 Eastern box turtles are well designed for life on land and under water.  Hinged plastrons allow them to hide fully into their shell. Unfortunately this is exactly what they do when they get picked up. Waiting half an hour didn't get this adult turtle out of it's shell more than this much.

Easterern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina)

 This is a great defense mechanism against their natural predators but won't do them much good against cars on the road.

Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina)

Search for the elusive mud snake continued for hours. Other groups reported marbled and mole salamanders but flipping logs only found us more Bess beetles.

Heading to the railroad tracks in hopes of better luck with amphibians we struck out. Our only savior was a fence lizard and a few ground skinks. 

Fence Lizard Underside (Sceloporus undulatus)

Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus)

Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus)

 ... and the day ended as the trip began with an adorable northern cricket frog- this one in a green phase.

Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans)

Sometimes the nicests destinations are quite a journey

This weekend involved one of the longest drives I have ever trekked to go camping. I was either on the road driving or trying to sleep while other drove the 20 or so hours from Ottawa to Southern Illinois. We arrived at Pine Hills Campground very early in the morning.

Car issues caused us to miss half of our first day of herping,  however determined as we always are we searched nearby our campsite while we waited. Two amphibian species were discovered within 5 minutes of our campsite.

Walking in a small runoff ditch just bordering our campsite we found a Northern Cricket Frog. This was hopeful and after a few (maybe a bit of an underestimation) pictures we moved down to lower on this runoff ditch to where it meets up with a small creek. 

Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans)

 The small creek was very low in terms of water level but had a lot of large flat stones and some smaller gravel. Flipping the two largest flat rocks we could find led to the discovery of two adult long tailed salamanders.

Long Tailed Salamander (Eurycea longicauda)

Long Tailed Salamander (Eurycea longicauda)

Long Tailed Salamander (Eurycea longicauda)

Long Tailed Salamander (Eurycea longicauda)

 Car issues fixed we headed to Snake Road with new enthusiasm. Reports from fellow herpetologists on the road didn't sound to great since very little had been seen due to cold weather.  Our determination and the fact we had traveled so far meant that we looked anyways.

Along the cliff face we searched every small crack we could find for small bright salamanders that would be crawling over the moss if it was a night of warm rain. After a decent search we finally found one hiding in a very small crack.

Members of our group who had been to the road for many years before me showed us the famous cottonmouth dens where they had reported snakes in the 400's before. Today we saw very few and they were further back in the den.

Searching more on the ridge I hiking on and on loosing the rest of my group. I found another cottonmouth in a flat rock out-cropping. Deeper into the den was a lighter snake with dark bands. Yes my first Timber Rattlesnake. I couldn't contain myself and within seconds I was radioing my fellow herpers to report the sighting and blowing a whistle so they could find me on the hill.  They complained about the long uphill trek but were silenced by the discovery of three timbers and three cottonmouths sharing a den.

Radio communication did come in handy multiple times over the weekend and a large group of 22 of us were bound to find many things while off on our own. A groups report of a copperhead sent us running and we caught up to a juvenile surrounded by at least 20 people taking pictures of it.

Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix)

Juvenile copperhead showing green tail

Escaping from the crowds we headed further down the road and found a central newt and a zigzag salamander under logs. Central newts are a sub-species (if you believe in those things) of the Eastern newt that I have seen many times in Ontario.

Central Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens louisianensis)

The idea of sub species was hotly debated over the weekend and brought up multiple times within the crowd.  In order to count a new sighting... I'm gonna say this ones valid.

We overhear a radio call "Red milksnake further down the road" and well to put it mildly booked it following this guy we didn't know to a large bluff where the juvenile milksnake had been climbing the cliff face.

Red Milksnake (Lampropeltis triangulum)

Red Milksnake (Lampropeltis triangulum)

 Our friend Steve Pike whose car unfortunately broke down was out picking it up and nearly missed his target snake for the weekend. Luckily he got back in time and the snake was still around.

Luckily we all got nice pictures of this little one

Zigzag salamanders look very similar to a common Ontario species so finding one was a bit confusing at first but range maps came in handy showing that red-backed salamanders don't actually make it into southern Illinois.

Zigzag salamander (Plethodon ventralis)

How can you look into those eyes and not say "awwwe"

 Our last herp for the day was another lifer for me since I restarted my life list two years ago. Two ground skinks were seen in the leaf litter around the bottom of the large bluff. One was missing it's tail showing that it had a close escape from a predator this year.

Ground Skink (Scincella lateralis)

Growing back the tail lost to a predator