So Far . . .

Many herpers, like bird-watchers, butterfly-chasers, and autograph-hounds, enjoy keeping a list of their sightings/finds/captures. Here is the record of what reptiles and amphibians I have seen in the field, including the date and state I saw my first(or the first one I can recall specifically). Those marked with an asterisk are so noted because I was unable, for reasons of time or situation, to make a positive ID. I will talk a little more about those species afterward.

Here you are:

Turtles

Common Snapping Turtle-- WI, 1980
Eastern Box Turtle-- OH, 2005
Ornate Box Turtle-- WI, 2005
Eastern Painted Turtle-- OH, 2005
Midland Painted Turtle-- WI, 1991
Eastern Spiny
Softshell Turtle-- WI, 1991


Lizards

Green Anole-- FL, 1988
Northern Fence Lizard-- KY, 1999


Snakes

Northern Water Snake-- WI, 1995
Lake Erie Water Snake* -- OH, 2004
Northern/Midland
Brown snake (intergrade)-- OH, 1999
Midland/Texas
Brown Snake (intergrade)-- WI, 2003
Eastern Garter Snake-- WI, 1990
Maritime Garter Snake-- ME, 1993
Chicago Garter Snake-- WI, 1990
Plains Garter Snake-- WI, 1981
Butler's Garter Snake-- WI, 2003
Northern Ribbon Snake-- OH, 2004
Northern Ringneck Snake-- OH, 2005
Smooth Green Snake-- OH, 2005
Western Fox Snake-- WI, 2005
Black Rat Snake*-- OH, 1994
Bullsnake*-- WI, 1992
Eastern Milk Snake-- WI, 1991
Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake-- OH, 2005


Salamanders

Jefferson/Blue-spotted
Salamander hybrid-- OH, 2005
Northern Dusky Salamander*-- OH, 2005
Eastern Tiger Salamander-- WI, 1991
Redback Salamander-- OH, 2005
Southern Two-lined Salamander-- OH, 2005


Frogs/Toads

American Toad-- WI, 1980
Gray Treefrog-- OH, 2004
Western Chorus Frog-- OH, 2005
Blanchard's Cricket Frog--OH, 2005
Bullfrog-- OH, 1997
Green Frog-- OH, 2005
Wood Frog-- WI, 2005
Northern Leopard Frog-- WI, 1991
Pickerel Frog-- WI, 1991

I know that my list may seem impressive, but there are a lot of herpers who have much longer lists than this. Gives me some motivation.

Regarding the species on which I could not make an ID:

Lake Erie Water Snake: These might have been just regular old water snakes. They were seen on Marblehead, and I am not sure if any of the Lake Erie genes extend to the mainland. But for now . . .

Black Rat Snake: This is kind of a funny story. I was in a boat with the lovely Angela and her parents, my then in-laws-to-be. We were fishing at Lake Loramie State Park and having no luck whatsoever. We did see a lot of turtles on logs and snakes on the bank. We had found a new spot that looked promising and were dropping the anchor when I saw a rather large dark snake sunning itself on the bank. This was too much for me to resist. I peeled off my shirt, and advised my in-laws that I was about to slide in the water and see how close I could get to it.

You know those moments where you are mortified by someone else's behavior, but, because it is so far beyond anything you could ever have anticipated, you are helpless to stop them? This was one of those moments for my in-laws-- and probably Angie.

Anyway, over the side I went, and swam with Hiawatha-like stealth until I came within, no lie, like 18 inches. The snake was really dark but had hints of color along the side. I have seen similarly colored water snakes but the head just did not look like Natrix to me (at the time I was unaware that Black Rats lived in the area). I did not get hold of it because I was somewhat paralyzed by the fear that if I moved to grab it, the snake would bolt. I was further paralyzed by the fact that if it did not bolt, I would catch it, and a water snake that large would deliver quite a bite. The snake decided for me, and wandered off casually, not towards the water but back into the brush-- also uncharacteristic of the water snake. I swam back to the boat. Years later I informed my wife and extended family that it might have been a black rat snake. It was not until then that I was informed that had I picked the snake up, there would have been no boat waiting for me.

Bullsnake: I was camping in southwest WI with my brother Brian. We had stopped by Governor Dodge State Park specifically to hike for snakes. After about two hours we came to a hilly field with a kind of broad mowed path. Brian went down one side of the path, I took the other. Every herper knows that you are responsible, no matter what else is going on, to keep your eyes glued to the side of the path in front of you. I have no idea what Brian was looking at, but he nearly stepped on a snake. I got a glimpse of its tail as it fled. Best guess is bullsnake, although it could have been a hognose or maybe even a western fox.

Dusky Salamander: click here.

A quick rundown of the species I really would like to see and add to this list that live in my area: five-lined skink, northern copperhead, hognosed-snake, northern red-belly snake, timber rattlesnake, blue racer, Fowler's toad, spotted salamander, marbled salamander, red salamander, and the green salamander. Don't worry, if I see them, you'll hear about it.

Herp Heaven!

Backdate: 06/18/2005

As I mentioned in a previous post, my wife, the lovely Angela, and our kids spent the week with her parents camping in the lovely Hocking Hills area. There were lots of herps to be found, much to the delight of Eleanor. Actually, as I was taking this picture, Angie had just told her what sight we were going to see next. This is Ella's patronizing "Oh really? You guys are the best parents ever!" face. She did actually seem to enjoy the hiking-- carried a walking stick and everything-- as long as it wasn't too much at once.

Everyone was quite taken with the beauty of the area. The falls at Old Man's (not a real cave, but an immense rock overhang) Cave, as well as Cedar (not real cedars, but hemlocks) Falls-- pictured below-- were pretty neat, but the real gem of the area was Conkle's Hollow.

It is hard for me to give a description that does Conkle's Hollow justice. Suffice it to say that it is a narrow wooded gorge between breath-taking sandstone bluffs, themselves draped with lush (and sometimes rare or endangered) vegetation. A quiet brook trickles through it all. The afternoon we visited was so humid that there was almost a light mist hanging in the hollow. The trees filtered out just the right amount of light, giving the place a sort of enchanted glow. Angie remarked that she half expected to see fairies. Of course we did not. We did see one herp here. A salamander, Southern Two-lined, to be precise. Again, the pic above is Cedar Falls, not Conkle's Hollow. We forgot our camera on that hike.

Back to the herps. The first day we arrived, I noticed an old chapel and cemetary right across the road from the campground. It was next to a woods, and both the building and the graveyard were run down and a bit overgrown. Looked like good herping. After I helped Dad get the campsite set up, I took the kids over to see if we could find any thing. Our first trip yeilded little, despite a good number of slate shingles, wood siding pieces, and other debris scattered over the area. The only thing we found was a shed snakeskin behind the chapel. From the size and habitat, I figured black rat-snake. Since there was nothing else to see, we went about our normal camping activities.

The next morning, I woke up before anyone else, and decided to head back to the churchyard to see what I could see. Under one of the boards behind the church was a snake I had never seen before and had not really expected to find-- especially as the first one of the trip. I recognized it right away. The light collar on the otherwise slate gray snake is a dead giveaway. Northern Ring-necked Snake/Diadophis punctatus edwardsii. From above this looks like a rather mundane serpent. No big deal. But when I picked it up I was surprised by the brightness of the belly. All ringneck snakes have vividly colored ventrums--some even use them in a defensive display, but northerns are supposed to be the least colorful of this species. I was expecting a dull yellow to match the ring on the neck. Most of the ringnecks I found were bright orange below, as seen here.
I ended up finding a total of four or five of these snakes (a couple could have been repeats, its kind of hard to tell) throughout the week. At least one appeared to be gravid; I thought I could make out the distinct shape of eggs through her belly. It was so tempting to keep her and see if i could get any eggs she might lay to hatch. Keeping her til the end of the week, then returning her after egg-laying would have been difficult, however; as would have been caring for the young. It really would not have worked.

About mid-week, I was taking the boys out to poke around in the state forest. About one hundred yards from the campsite, we came across an good sized turtle crossing the road. It was a brightly colored Eastern Box Turtle/Terrapene carolina. We turned right around to show everyone back at camp. Turtles do not seem to be nearly as upsetting to some people as other herps can be. We got this photo on the little grass carpet in front of the trailer. Note the bright scales on the sides of the head and on the front legs. I was quite pleased.

There were several other herps we saw, many were not photographed because either did not have a camera with us at the time, or did not a good opportunity to photograph them. These included northern water snakes, milk snakes (see previous post), snapping turtles, green frogs, bullfrogs, toads (did not check to see if it was a Fowler's) and salamanders.

It is due to this trip that I now have a heightened interest in salamanders. There was one day when we found over 20 of three, maybe four different species. We were hiking through a portion of state woods where we found the first one, a Red-backed Salamander, under a rotted log. The proportions of its body and the way it moved, kind of reminded me of Randall in Monster's Inc. It was really agile and energetic. Not like the lumbering tiger salamanders I used to see as a kid.

A little later, in the bed of a forested stream (which was now little more than a trickle between puddle sized pools), we hit the mother-lode. Every 2nd or 3rd rock was home to what I have come to believe were Northern Dusky Salamanders, although I could not ID them at the time. I thought maybe they were Jefferson's, but the streambed habitat has since changed my mind. We probably saw a dozen of these. Some of the rocks on the margin of the streamside also held Southern Two-lined salamanders. Without my field guide I again made an incorrect inital ID, thinking they were immature red-backed salamanders.

What may have been the fourth species were the myriad larvae that scattered when I lifted rocks that were in water of a few inches depth. I couldn't catch them, which did not matter because I would not have been able to ID them if I had. I have, however, heard that Red Salamander larva can be found in the hillside streams in Hocking County during June. I'm hanging my hat on that.

OK, so that might not be as many herps as you would expect from a place I have dubbed "herp heaven", but it was the best week of finding reptiles and amphibians I have ever had. So keep your complaints and criticisms to yourself!

Forward, Homeward.

Backdate: 06/05/2005

I know this is a little out of order with some of my other backdated posts. Please forgive me.

My son, Winfield, and I headed to Wisconisn on the evening of June 2nd. The basic plan was to spend Friday and Saturday finding as many herps as possible. I had mapped out some spots near my hometown in southeast WI as well as some near the Wisconsin river, and a farm in Columbia County owned by a friend and former business associate.

We started the day in my hometown at a site where I have been finding Plains Garter Snakes/Thamnophis radix for the past 25 years. This place has been developed signifigantly since 1980 when I found the first one. Several appartment buildings, some warehouses and even a new highschool have greatly reduced and fragmented livable habitat. In 2003, last time I was there, I found a small pocket of field remnant near the stream that flows through these parcels. It was littered with pallets, cardboard and other debris, and harbored several yearling radix along with a female several years old.

This year, when we returned, part of the little area where we had found the snakes above had been bulldozed, creating a big pile of brush and effectively reducing much of the formerly scattered cover. There were a few boards left. We found only one snake. It was a radix that looked only old enough to have been born late the previous summer. Took several pics but none turned out very clear. This snake may have just shed, because the blotching between and below the stripes was very distinct, the dorsal stripe was bright orange, especially near the head, and there was a light cream collar on either side of the neck-- a feature I do not remember seeing before on this species.

After this we headed west towards the river. We stopped at a marsh wildlife preserve about which we traipsed for a couple of hours, but found no herps. From there we continued west until arriving at one of the Lower Wisconsin River State Wildlife Areas. This is where the habitat picture at the top of the page was taken. The terrain appeared, to me anyway, to be perfect for Bullsnakes, Hognosed Snakes, Fox Snakes, and maybe, if we were lucky, racers, a skink, box turtles.

The first and only herp we found at after a signifigant amount of searching was the Wood Frog pictured below. I am pretty sure I have seen wood frogs before, but this is the first one I have made a positive ID on. I am pretty proud of having caught a photo of a Wood Frog on a hunk of wood.

After giving up on this spot, I consulted the map and saw that the state owned a couple of parcels up around the river bend, so we headed there. We stopped at kind of a barrens/savannah type preserve, where there were, believe it or not, wild cactuses (cacti?) growing.

This spot was really beautiful; although the soil had been sandy at the LWRSWA, this place reminded both Win and I of a desert. Good spot for hognosed snakes, we agreed. In fact we later came upon a naturalist who had minutes before seen a hognosed at this site. He told us where, but of course we found nothing. We did find several pieces of tin, which I am sure were put there by wildlife managers to moniter herp populations, but we found only a mouse under one of them, nothing under the rest.

We were making our way around kind of a thicket, when Winfield exclaimed that I had stepped on a turtle.
It turned out to be an Ornate Box Turtle-- really nice looking. I have other pics of this animal that will show up in a later post. We felt very fortunate, as Ornate Box Turtles are endangered in WI. We decided to put it down and watch it until it came out of its shell. After about 2 minutes with no result, we decided to look elswhere for 3-5 more minutes, and then sneak back to see if he had poked his head out. When we returned, however, not only had he stuck his head out, but had gone so far that we could not locate him again. We felt like complete hares!

We stopped at Black Earth Creek on the way back to Joel's house, partly to see if we could find any of the Northern Water Snakes that are (were?) so plentiful there, and partly for old time's sake. No snakes, but plenty of rising trout.

The next day we had planned to arrive at my friends farm at about 8 a.m. to find fox snakes. He had told me that the area was crawling with them, and that he had gotten permission for us to visit some of his neihhbors land as well.

We got there late. There was no sign of "Farmer Mark". So we looked on his land anyway. We did find a dead Eastern Garter Snake, but nothing else. After a while we gave up and went fishing, but later returned to find my farmer friend at home.

He directed us to several "prime spots", one of which was a road along a hillside that was bordered by woods and farm lots. It was along this road that I saw my first Fox Snake/Elaphe v. vulpina in the wild.
Actually, Joel saw him (a 2.5 ft male) first. And Joel actually did the catching. But since I led the expedition and gained permission to access the land, I take full credit.

I know everyone is wondering, just what is the differrence between the Western Fox Snake and the Eastern (Elaphe vulpina gloydii or Elaphe gloydii, depending). Breifly, the differences are as follows. The Eastern Fox snake occurs only in MI, OH, and Ontario, Canada around the shores of lakes Erie and Huron. They have fewer and larger blotches, and their heads tend to be a more coppery red than the westerns, whose heads tend toward the tan. The Eastern Fox Snake is a habitat and prey specialist, living primarily in marshland and eating the resident voles. The Western Fox Snake lives in much more varied habitat and eats much more varied prey and, consequently, has not been as sharply affected by habitat reduction.

While some herp fans favor the coloration of the Easterns; I think this pic of the Western we caught that day (and, for the record, later released) makes a strong case for the rival beauty of the Fox Snakes found in central WI. The blotches are so clean, the background color such a nice buff, and the head even looks kind of "coppery".

Watch Out fer Copperheads!

Backdate: 06/17/2005

My family and I spent the 3rd week of June camping with my in-laws/her parents/their grandparents. This was at the Hocking Hills area of Ohio, which, in addition to being literally gorge-ous, is herptile rich. I will have more tales and pics of this trip in a later post. There is one specific story I wish to relate today.

We spent much time in public land looking for snakes, etc., and did a lot of driving to get to the different parcels of State Forest. On one particular drive, which took us through land that was alternately public and private, we came around a curve to find a live and strutting peacock smack dab in the middle of the road. OK! Then I noticed two Guinea hens on the side of the road just a few yards down from the peacock; after the birds finally yielded right of way, we drove on. We quickly came upon what might be described as a somewhat rundown, and overrun, animal farm/exotic bird ranch/puppy mill/hillbilly museum. In a brief survey of the non-human inhabitants there, I counted: 4 ducks, 2 geese, 2 guinea fowl, 2 peacocks, some chickens, 1 goat, 3 blood hounds, two basset hounds, two lamas, along with several fleetingly-glimpsed, semi-feral cats.

While such a place, one occupied by hoofed-mammals and birds that might prey upon just about anything, isn't always the best in which to go looking for snakes and the like, I did notice that it had a few positive aspects. First, there was the sheer amount of surface debris, including piles of trash, old cars and parts, rusting farm implements, boards, a partially standing corn cribs next to a ramshackle shed. Also the fence at the rear of the property was bordered by a large meadow that appeared undisturbed by the domestic animals. Best of all, I spied several pieces of roofing tin and some other cover in a quieter corner of the barnyard. As no one appeared to be home just then, I determined to stop by again to see if I could gain access.

The following day, with both boys in the car I went back and found the lady of the house home. In response to my standard spiel about who I was and what I wished to do on her property, she said, "Go right on ahead; I'll tell you right now that ther's a mess o' copperheads in that pile o' stuff back there." She motioned toward the pile of tin. I responded with thanks and my assurance that I would make my boys be really careful (in fact, I did not allow them in any of the tall grass or to turn over any cover). We then hopped the fence and headed over to the pile.

I am often told tales by people who have seen "water moccasins" or "rattlers" on their land, despite the fact that I know such snakes do not occur in that area, sometimes not even that state. Usually these reports turn out to be sightings of water snakes or any of several spotted constrictor species, who will often rapidly vibrate their tails when disturbed (when the snake is found in leaves or dry grass, etc, this often produces a rattling sound). But since copperheads are known to inhabit the Hocking Hills area, I took the lady's statement at face value.

In fact I was quite cautious. When lifting cover, I used a stick to pull it high enough to where I could safely get my hands on it. I myself stayed out of the tall grass. We checked quite of bit of debris as we made our way back to the pile of tin. No results.

Finally, after checking the inside of the corncrib and shed, we arrived at the roofing tin. I often marvel at how much of this stuff there is lying around at various places. This looked as if it had never been used-- and there was lots of it! Unfortunately it was somewhat difficult to work with as it was not arranged in neat rows on the ground as I would have liked it to be. It was overlapping and somewhat fanned, sort of like a hand of playing cards. In order to get at it safely, I ended up lifting it piece by piece and setting it against the shed. We found nothing until the last two pieces.

I often find that when searching a pile of debris, the layers that are on top of other pieces are usually uninhabited. It is the layers that are nearly completely against the ground that are most productive. Sure enough, when I flipped the second to last piece, there was a snake neatly coiled in a small depression in the earth. I thought I recognized it right away, but after finding my first venomous snake earlier this year, I looked it over carefully to make sure. It had a medium gray ground color and was blotched with brick-red/brown, black bordered saddles. The clincher was the light gray "v" on the neck. I had been correct; it was an eastern milk snake, Lampropeltis t. triangulum. The first I had found in Ohio. I picked it up, and it remained calm. The boys were going nuts, so I let Joe hold this one, and snapped the picture above. The next piece of tin revealed another milk snake that was nearly the twin of the first; however, its colors were not nearly as bright because it was getting ready to shed.

Interestingly, both had stub-tails. I immediately got a vivid mental picture: a half-crazed hillbilly animal farmer wielding a hoe and chasing what she believed to be copperheads all over the yard. It is possible that there were copperheads on the property, but in light of the fact that the nearest woods were rather dense, and neither they nor the meadow next to the farm contained any rocky outcrops, it is unlikely. This was probably another case of mistaken identity combined with ignorance, possibly resulting in unnecessary killing of a beneficial rodent predator.

After finding just one other snake, a northern ringneck/Diadophos punctatus edwardsii, I went back to the house to let her know that the snakes I found were not venomous, but rather were helpful to farmers. She had left on an errand or something.

I know I have spoken rather harshly of the people that owned this land. Maybe I ought to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they, too, know that copperheads and other snakes are helpful mouse-eaters. Maybe the cats, or one of the birds, or some other factor was responsible for the fact that both snakes were missing portions of their tails. It could be.

If not though, I guess that even seemingly senseless killing of animals could be part of nature's balance, built in by God. For me, however, it is with reluctance that I play "top predator".

Massasauga!

Backdate: 05/27/2005

As a kid growing up, I read everything about snakes I could get my hands on. From the encyclopedia to books at both the school and public libraries. One of the best books a kid can read on snakes is called A Snake Lover's Diary by Barbara Brenner (sounds kind of like an ophiofile's blog, doesn't it?). Anyway, the books that I kept coming back to, that fascinated me the most, were the field guides. Partly because there were so many different kinds of snakes in them, and partly because they showed you exactly where those snakes lived in the United States. I spent countless hours poring over the maps in those books, determining exactly which species lived in Southeastern Wisconsin.

If you are not careful, there are a couple of pitfalls that you can, well, fall into regarding feild guides. The first is too great a reliance on the photos/illustrations as an identification guide. The people who put these books together often seem to try and find a photograph of the most spectacular speciman of a given snake to use in the guide. Often this ends up being the prototypical image you have of a species, so when you come across a "real" one, whose drab, mundane coloring may only hint at the illustration snake, you're not sure exactly what it is. This caused me specific frustration with Wisconsin milk snakes. Didn't they know that they were supposed have much richer red blotches rather than muddy olive brown, and that their ground color should have been much lighter gray in order to present a more asthetic contrast?

The second heresy inexperienced field guide readers might be tempted to embrace is that of distribution uniformity. As a kid I was sure that there were certain types of snakes within a mile of my house because that ground was included in the shaded portion of the range map. I knew nothing of habitat requirements or historical distribution, and certainly had never heard the term "fragmented population". As a result I spent a lot of time looking for certain species in places where they simply did not occur.

One of these was the massasauga rattlesnake. As far as I was concerned my home state was crawling with them, the which fact was clearly demonstrated by the broad swath of colored ink covering Wisconsin on the range maps in all the guides. I did not know, as I do now, that the Massasauga was and is declining across its range as more and more wetlands are drained, more and more of their former habitat is farmed, and people still do not understand that a snake need not be dead to be "a good snake."

Now, older and, hopefully, wiser, I am beginning to understand those things more fully. And while I am not an environmentalist per se, I do believe in conservation, in being wise stewards of the creation entrusted to us. Yes, even-- no, especially,-- when it comes to herptiles. And my herping has become more focused on the areas where the snakes are likely to actually live, a fact that has boosted my hunt/find ratio considerabley, as well as adding several species to my "life list".

Which brings me to my breif, exhilarating story.

I had been intending for some time to visit a certain area of my new home state, Ohio, as I believed, due to habitat along with other factors, that I would have a really good chance of finding my first rattlesnake there. Specifically, a Massasauga. When I found out that there were some fishing ponds nearby, I knew I could work the trip out. My brother, Joel, and his family come to our house every year to visit, and we always take a day to go fishing and look for critters.

So that is how it happened that on May 26 of this year, Joel and I found ourselves getting absolutely skunked on what looked to be a great pond to fish. To this day, I think he believes that I knew the fishing was no good and just took him there for the herps. For the record, completely untrue. However, after about an hour of endless casting resulting in exactly "0" strikes. We decided to put the poles back in the car and see if we could find some snakes.

We caught several frogs in a woods nearby, once we figured out the proper pounce, and then drove on to a field that looked promising. When we came upon an area of scattered surface debris, I believe my pulse quickened significantly, and a light sweat broke out on my forehead. There had to be snakes here; garters, black rats, something! Turns out I was right. After the first few pieces of cover had been turned we came upon one that harbored three snakes. 2 Eastern Garters and a Smooth Green Snake (my first in the field). I think if that was all we had found, that would have been enough. It wasn't.

The next piece of cover, some roofing tin, held two more Garters. As my friend Mark would say, "meh". We moved to the next piece of tin.

We lifted it to reveal two snakes. One was a Garter, the other was a thick, gray serpent with brownish blotches on it. It was as if my brain had no mental template this snake would match. I blame both my high excitement level, along with Field Guide Pitfall #1. "What is it?" I sort of sputtered, "A black rat?"

It was as I uttered these words that we heard the rattle. Of course, Joel had already ID'd it. "No, man, Massasauga!" There it was.

Yes, we picked it up. We probably should not have, both for our own safety as well as the snake's. It is, after all, an endangered species in Ohio and over most of its range. But I have now seen and handled one of the neatest snakes there is.

A few things struck me. One was how stout, almost comically so, this snake was. The head size was probably normal for a colubrid (a family of snakes that hold to more typical, snakelike proportions) of the same length, but looked well undersized on this viper. The rattler appeared to be female but only a visual check was made. I was not going to probe this thing. She also appeared to be gravid as well as having a slight midbody lump which I presumed was a meal that was nearly digested. The other thing about this snake was the speed with which she was able to move, despite her portliness. She made probably three mock strikes while we observed her on the ground. If we had been too close, there would have been no getting out of the way.

Turned out to be the last snake of the day. High fives were given and we went on our way. By the way, the picture up top (borrowed from herpnet.net, which holds the image's copyright) is not the snake we found. But it does look almost exactly like her. No field guide "models" here.

FSotY

This and several of the forthcoming posts will be backdated.

05/16/2005

Not surprisingly, an Eastern Garter Snake/Thamnophis s. sirtalis was my first snake of the year. I was looking under one of the cover boards at a public hunting grounds not far from where I work, and decided to move it because a sizable colony of red ants had taken up residence beneath it at the current site. My experience dictates largely that boards on top of big anthills harbor few snakes. Anyway, I had found what I believed was a more suitable spot, and was kind of stamping it into place when some movement in the grass to my left caught my eye. I froze, and after about 30 seconds of stealthful stalking, I had her in my grasp.

She was not terribly large, maybe 15-18 inches and somewhat stout for the length (is it too early for her to be gravid or was she just well fed?). It seemed to have quite a broad head as well. Coloration was typical for this area (NW Ohio)-- tan/olive dorsal hues, prominent dorsal spotting and an indistinct dorsal stripe. Also fairly common for sirtalis in our area was the reddish-orange flush to the skin between the scales involved in, and adjacent to, the lateral stripe. This extended from the neck rearward for about 2/3 of body length. Perhaps not coincidentally, the sides of the head had a somewhat coppery tinge to them. All in all, a nice-looking little snake. Of course, I had no camera with me. I have since returned several times to find an example to photograph. I attribute my lack of success to the length of grass and the recent hot, dry spell. Ironically, I have never found another snake near/under that same cover board.