Latest Project

I believe the Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma opacum) to be one of most intriguing salamanders of Ohio. First of all, it is a beautiful animal; just click the link above to see for yourself. (That is a really neat site, by the way; most if not all the photos there were taken by fellow named Jason Folt.) Additionally, their life history is somewhat different from that of most other Mole (Ambystoma sp.) salamanders such as the Tiger (Ambystoma tigrinum) or Blue-spotted (Ambystoma laterale).

While these latter make their way to the breeding ponds in early Spring when they are usually quite swelled with February snow-melt and March rains, the Marbled Salamander arrives at its ponds in Autumn, when they are no more than empty depressions that have been dry since Summer. They then lay their eggs-- not too near the bottom (so they don't hatch at the first rain then dry out if no further rain arrives), and not too near the top (to avoid being just above the water line if it never rains enough to fill the pool that high)-- then wait there with them until the rain does arrive. Because of this behavior that is curiously divergent from that of like genera, it is very difficult to sample vernal pools for this particular Ambystomatid species in the typical way-- using partially-submerged minnow-trap-like-thingys around the perimiter of the pond in early Spring. Marbled Salamander adults are months gone by then.

So, in order to sample a pond for opacum effectively, you really need to dip-net said pond in spring and early summer, then check out the larvae that you find. The dip-netting part is not too hard-- I have had good success two years running now at a pond in a Hancock County, OH woods that has, historically, held Marbled Salamanders. It is the checking out larvae that I have a bit of trouble with. First off, they are kind of small and look pretty fragile. It seems that belly and throat pigmentation are key to discriminating between the different species, and these little guys just don't want to lie on their backs while I get a good enough look. I always feel like if I hold them in place long enough to see what I need to see, I am going to break a tiny leg, tear of a gill, or just plain crush them.

Therefore, the former snake room in my basement now houses a new project.

Yes, folks, we're growing baby salamanders.

Let me explain what you are seeing here. Each larva now lives in it's own little tupperware container. This makes it easier for me to keep track of how much each one eats (presently I feed them dried bloodworms one by one by hand and forceps), and keeps them from eating each other's gills off. I collected these larvae on Saturday and, until tonight, I had them all in one larger plastic tub. As of last night a couple of the little guys were already missing gills. This arrangement also allows me to track individual progress as they mature.

My hope is that one or more of these little guys grows up to be the striking creature you saw if you followed the link at the top to the photo. Admittedly, the chances at this are not great. The woods in which these were found is now much smaller than it was when the records were vouchered back in the 1960s, and the habitat is somewhat altered, so opacum may no longer persist there. Even if I don't get what I am after here, I will still end up with interesting animals. Smallmouth Salamanders (Ambystoma texanum), perhaps, or one of the several hybrids involving the Jeffersons (Ambystoma jeffersonianum) and Blue-spotted species.

OK, it's not a puppy, but who could say no to this cute little face?

Important Bulletin!

A while ago, I provided you all with a list of all the reptiles and amphibians I have seen in the field. There are a couple of problems with this list. First of all, since it is going on three years old, it is outdated. In addition, I made some inclusions in the original list that were a bit speculative. At this point, I believe I should include only animals that meet the following criteria:

1. I personally observed the animal in the field. This allows me to include animals that I was not the first to come upon or was not the one that lifted the rock to find, etc.
2. The animal was alive. I will not be including animals found dead on the road.
3. The animal was positively identified.

That last one is probably the most restrictive. It will remove a few of my previous listers, and prevent me from adding a couple more--most notably some sort of skink (probably a Broadhead) that the boys and I observed in TN last year, but not closely enough to be absolutely sure it wasn't a Five-lined sporting its "breeding colors".

However, in the interest of accuracy and honesty, I feel that adhering to these principles is best, and now present you with the updated and amended list.

REPTILES

TURTLES

Common Snapping Turtle, WI- 1980
Eastern Box Turtle, OH- 2003
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
Praire Racerunner, WI- 2006

SNAKES

Lake Erie Water Snake, OH- 2007
Northern Water Snake, WI- 1995
Queen Snake, OH- 2007
Northern/Midland Brown snake, OH- 1999
Midland/Texas Brown Snake, WI- 2003
Northern Red-bellied Snake, OH- 2006
Eastern Garter Snake, WI- 1990
Maritime Garter Snake, ME- 1993
Chicago Garter Snake, WI- 1990
Plains Garter Snake, WI- 1980
Butler's Garter Snake, WI- 2003
Northern Ribbon Snake, OH- 2004
Northern Ringneck Snake, OH- 2005
Blue/Yellow-bellied Racer, WI- 2006
Smooth Green Snake, OH- 2005
Western Fox Snake, WI- 2005
Eastern Milk Snake, WI- 1991
Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake, OH- 2005


AMPHIBIANS

SALAMANDERS

Red-spotted Newt, OH- 2007
Spotted Dusky Salamander, TN- 2007
Northern Dusky Salamander, OH- 2005
Imitator Salamander, TN- 2007
Ambystomatid hybrid, OH- 2005
Spotted Salamander, OH- 2007
Smallmouth Salamander, OH- 2006
Eastern Tiger Salamander, WI- 1991
Redback Salamander, OH- 2005
Jordan's Salamander, TN- 2007
Southern Redback Salamander, TN- 2007
Northern Two-lined Salamander, OH- 2007
Southern Two-lined Salamander, OH- 2005
Long-tailed Salamander, TN- 2007
Blue-Ridge Two Lined Salamander, TN- 2007
Northern Spring Salamander, OH- 2006
Blue Ridge Spring Salamander, TN- 2007

TOADS AND FROGS

American Toad, WI- 1980
Fowler's Toad, WV- 2005
Gray Treefrog, OH- 2004
Spring Peeper, OH- 2006
Western Chorus Frog, OH- 2006
Bullfrog, OH- 1997
Green Frog, OH- 2005
Wood Frog, WI - 2005
Northern Leopard Frog, WI- 1991
Pickerel Frog, WI- 1991
Blanchard's Cricket Frog, OH- 2005

Some interesting stats on the numbers above. I added 7 species or subspecies to my list in 2006 and 11 (9 of them salamanders!) in 2007, giving me a totals of 6 turtles, 3 lizards, 18 snakes, 17 salamanders, and 11 frogs/toads, or 55 herptiles. Again these numbers are modest to poor compared to those of other people who like to do what I do; this is merely the present status of a lifetime project.

Species I think I have a good chance of adding this year on outings in Ohio and South Carolina include the Eastern Fox Snake, Black Kingsnake, Eastern Kingsnake, Corn Snake, Hog-nosed Snake, Copperhead, Southern Toad, and American Alligator. I also still hope to verify continued populations of Marbled Salamanders and Four-toed Salamanders in my home Ohio County.

Wish me luck.

O-Files Q&A, Part 2

Yes, dear reader, it is that time again. That's right, YOU get to dictate the content of today's entry by asking your computer questions! Today's questions are as follows:

Q: What if your Marbled Salamander is not eating?

A: Apparently this reader did not have the same K-5 teacher that I did. If (s)he had, (s)he would have known that what-ifs don't matter. You can what-if yourself crazy. You can what-if until the cows come home or you die (whichever happens first) and it won't make a blessed bit of difference.

What if a meteor hit the earth? What if we are unable to reverse the current trend of entropy in the universe? What if that twitching vein in my leg means the doctor was right about my cholestorol levels after all? What if terrorists attack my sock drawer. What if-- (gasp)-- WHAT IF MY DEODERANT STOPS WORKING???

Anyway, I don't have a Marbled Salamander. Next question.

Q: What kind of snakes are on Erie?

A: You might think I would be tempted to mock the asker of this question, but, I have, in fact, seen snakes on Lake Erie. One was about fifty feet from shore and heading away from, not towards, land, so I feel the query is legitimate. Said serpent was a Northern Water Snake, by the way.

If, by chance, this person meant to ask what kind of snakes are on the Lake Erie islands, the answer would be that the most commonly seen snakes on those islands include the Eastern Fox Snake, the Eastern Racer, and the endangered Lake Erie Water snake. The L.E. Water snake can be distinguished from the northern variety by lack of belly pattern, absent or obscured dorsal pattern, and, sometimes, an overall greenish-gray cast.

Today's final question comes from a sensible reader in Flora, IL.

Q: What kind of snake looks like a fishing worm?

A: This is a great question. The snake this reader probably encountered was a Midwestern or Western Worm Snake. It is hard to tell as Flora may lie within an area where the two subspecies intergrade. A picture is available here.

That's all the time we have for today folks. But, remember, there is no such thing as a question your computer can't answer!

Preview of Coming Attractions . . .

You may or may not recall last winter when I went AWOL for about 5 months. For many of you it may have been so traumatic that you have repressed the memory; this is entirely understandable.

In order to make sure that you are not forced to undergo such anguish again, I am reserving certain trip reports for the months of the year that actual herping trips are impossible for those of us who live this far north.

One trip that I am looking forward to posting about is a trip I took with the boys to the hill country of Hocking County, OH.

We herped for nearly two days solid, had several adventures, and found some interesting things.
Another reason I am putting this post off is the fact that I am doing some research into the geology of the northern portion of our continent, specifically the way what is called the Wisconsin glaciation affected WI and OH.

I hope these pics fulfill the dual purpose of satisfying your appetite for now and whetting it for later.

O-Files Q&A

I know, dear reader, that I promised a few weeks ago to update you on a couple of trips from May, but between now and then I have learned something that has troubled me greatly, and I feel must be addressed.

There are in this world people who ask their computers questions.

I can only surmise that these are folks who have just recently been introduced to the magic box of witchery that we know as the PC, and that their only previous knowledge of similar equipment was gleaned from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek TOS, and a few junior-high era sessions with a Magic 8 ball. While most of these people are probably still sitting sullenly before the monitor waiting for a verbal response ("computing . . . computing"), some have discovered that handy interface device, the keyboard. In fact, it is due to the activities of this latter group (along that queer tool of divination, the stat-counter) that I first became aware of this phenomenon.

The folks at Ask.com do nothing to help matters. This particular search engine has apparently taken the "if you can't beat them, humor them" approach. At their site, a person may type a question into the query field, and Ask.com brings them back a list of websites which may (or, as seems to be more often the case, may not) answer their question. What Ask.com does, I believe is filter out query words like "how" "when" as well as conjunctions, and then run a typical websearch on the key words.

I hope I have neither shattered any dearly held illusions lonely folk had about their computer talking to them, nor divulged any proprietary corporate information in that last paragraph.

Before we get too deep into the sarcasm, I think that this would be an appropriate time for me to confess that I once typed the following commands into a VIC-20 (one of the first ever home computers).

10 BREAK INTO THE FBI COMPUTERS IN WASHINGTON DC
20 END

I think that reveals sufficient ignorance and naivete to qualify me to engage in the heckling above. For the record, I had not just seen War Games, I had only seen the commercial for it.

The main point I really mean to make is this: we have all had moments where, regardless of how many search parameters we try, we just cannot find the information we want on the internet. And to those of you who have, in the past, experienced similar frustration by coming to my site expecting answers and finding none, I say, "This is YOUR post". I have, over the past couple of months, saved a few questions that I thought might be of broader interest, and will answer them now.

Q: What do Smallmouth Salmanders eat?

A: Smallmouth Salamanders are a widespread member of the Ambystomatid family (which also includes the Tiger Salamander and the Blue-spotted Salamander, among others) of salamanders that inhabits the east-central and south-central portion of the U.S. Unlike other salamanders that seem to need pristine wild areas in order to survive, the Smallmouth persists in agricultural and suburban type habitats. Due to the fact that it spends most of the year underground, this salamander often goes unnoticed by people who live near them and may actually have one or two residing in their yards.

There are at least two sizeable populations of this species within 20 minutes of my house, and my kids are actually keeping one in the basement. We feed it nightcrawlers slightly shorter in length than the salamander itself. I have observed one foraging in the wild, and it too was eating a nightcrawler. They will, however, also eat several other invertebrates that inhabit the same subterranean or forest floor litter haunts.

Q: Does a Eastern Painted Turtle male [get] involved in caring for the young?

A: The answer, sadly, is no. It is pretty tough to find a deader-beat dad than the male painted turtle, who contributes little else to the family unit than a few microscopic cells after a breif courtship with the female. He then goes on his way, looking for another young Chrysemystid heart to break.

While this may inspire outrage in you, save some spite for the mother, who, after carrying the developing eggs and digging a nest, deposits them and leaves the site, perhaps never to see her young again.

Actually, most reptiles and amphibians do not brood their eggs, and none give any parental care (a notable exception to this would be female crocidilians). Some species of snake have, in fact, been known to eat younger members of their kind. It is not at all unlikely that some have consumed their own offspring.

Fortunately for them, baby snakes, turtles, and frogs are born/hatched with all the instinct they need to make their way in this big, uncaring world.

Q: When do painted turtles hatch in Ohio?

A: Painted Turtles nest in late spring and early summer, so the eggs usually hatch in late summer or early fall. Some, however, hatch so late that they simply overwinter in the nest.

That is all for this session of O-files Q&A. I hope you found it to be as helpful and interesting as I intended, and fun rather than offensive.

One final warning, though. I will not answer the question, "Computer, will I ever find love?" No matter how many times you ask.

Multifarious Maunderings

This is sort of a catch-up post for an outing back on 04/22/2006. I guess it is not, as the thesaurus induced title might suggest, a miscellaneous-type update, but I needed a catchy hook, so . . .

I spent that entire Saturday at the nearest Massasauga site, hoping to encounter any of several interesting herps (Clonophis, Liochlorophis, etc) as well as some rattlesnakes. I had packed a lunch and brought several bottles of water, as well as having dressed in old sneakers and a pair of roomy kakhis (to accomadate all the bending and stooping involved in herping).

The first couple of snakes of the day were encountered under a piece of cover-- a small Eastern Garter and this Northern Water Snake/Nerodia s. sipedon, possibly the ugliest ever photographed. I am pretty convinced that it had just recently come out of hibernation, hence the mud-coveredness.

Several other pieces of likely looking cover held nothing, as did the nearby meadows. I moved on to a wet field between a woodlot and a small lake. The available cover in the field held nothing, so I began checking the cover just inside the perimiter of the woods. Just a technical note: edge habitat (i.e. places where fields meet woods and ponds meet the shore vegetation/rocks) often holds an incredible amount of wildlife.

I was checking underneath old rotting logs for salamanders, when some movement caught my eye. I had startled this handsome Northern Leopard Frog/Rana p. pipiens. Since it is pretty common where I live, I tend not to pay much attention to this species, but Leopard Frogs need love, too, right?

From the edge of the woods I headed over towards the pond, which is bordered by some intermittent brush, trees, and muckland. It was as I was making my way way through the brush and trees, when I spotted something small and orange-ish picking its way through the matted down grass. I was hoping it was a Four-Toed Salamander, but was not dissapointed that it was not, and they are not known to occurr at this locale anyway. It turned out to be a Spring Peeper/Pseudacris crucifer. My photo hardly does the color justice (I really believe I would not have seen it at all if it had not been so bright), but you can see that this specimen bears the cross-like markings that give it the second half of its scientific name.

I spent alot of the day being dissapointed at finding nothing under very likely looking pieces of cover. I did see several more water snakes as well as some Bullfrogs at a man-made marsh resevoir. I also found several places that appeared to be perfect Massasauga habitat, but saw none there.

Towards the end of the day, I found several pieces of cover in a drier field just across the road from a really wet field. Almost every piece held at least one Eastern Garter. The last one I looked under held this tiny rattlesnake, probably just under a year old. He was not disturbed at all that I had exposed him to the light of day; he just sat there. After getting several shots of him in this coiled position, I nudged him just a bit with my snake hook.

He immediately got all defensive on me and began rattling, but, because he was so young and appeared to have only the button (the first) segment of his rattle, this made no noise, except when his rapidly vibrating tail came into contact with the dry grass. A couple of things here:

1. It is impossible to tell the age of a rattlesnake by the number of segments in its rattle. Rattlers add a segment every time they shed their skin, which, in the early years of their life they may do 4-6 times annually. In addition, the rattles can be relatively easily damaged and frequetly break off.
2. Many species of harmless snakes such as rat-snakes or gopher snakes will vibrate their tail when disturbed. When these are sitting in dry-leaves or grass, the vibration will make a buzzing sound not unlike that of a rattler. Because of this, one should not assume that a snake behaving in this manner is deadly and should be killed immediately. Contrariwise, one should never handle a snaked they have not positively identified, even if it is not vibrating its tail

The photo below also illustrates a defensive trick many snakes resort to when they feel threatened, which is to spread their ribs to make themselves appear larger. The effect is most noticeable near the tail in this specimen-- you can almost see the tips of the ribs pushing the sides of the body out.

Well, that's all for now. Within a week or so, I should be able to put up a new entry on my Hocking Hills expedition with the boys. So long until then!

Abandonment Syndrome in Domesticated Herpers

I am, apparently, our cat Murphy’s new best friend. Because it is spring break, the lovely Angela has taken the kids to Wisconsin to visit the rest of the family and generally have a blast. This means a couple of things. First of all, the cat has nothing to do all day. I would think that this would suit Murphy, who spends the majority of her time fleeing the kids or sleeping, perfectly. It does not. I know this because when I come home in the evening, she is lying just inside the door, tummy-side up, mewling to be rubbed. I know this because she follows me from room to room, jumping on the table when I sit down to eat and leaping on the sink when I brush my teeth. I know this because she tried to sleep on top of me last night. Turns out that she, like me, misses the rest of her family.

Secondly, I myself have very little to do in the evenings. I have a few projects I could be working on, and have spent some time on these, but the general family hubbub as well as the leisurely conversations with my wife after the kids are in bed are sorely missed. Frankly, without the family here, the house is too big, too quiet, and way too lonely a place to hang around. I have been abandoned.

However, rather than mope or beg for attention like a silly kitty-cat, I am spending some of my discretionary time while the fam is away doing some of the things that I rarely get to do. This Saturday, I am thinking of going to the Mad River to do some trout fishing, something I have not done in nearly four years.

And last night, I went to a nature preserve about an hour away to look for snakes.

This locale is the same place that my brother, Joel, and I found our first venomous snake, so you have already heard one rattlesnake tale from this area. However, it is also supposed to harbor Red-bellied, Kirtland’s, and Black Rat snakes—none of which have I seen in the wild. It was nearly 6pm when I first got there, having come straight from work, and I decided to start in the same portion of the preserve as I had found the Massasauga last year because of a) the variety of species I had seen there and b) a particular corner of the field that has some nice big sheets of tin for cover.

After having struck out at the tin area, I followed a narrow “alley” between two wooded lots to a small marshy pond. Here I found more tin sheets!
It was under the piece pictured above that I found my first ever Northern Red-bellied Snake/Storeria o. occipitomaculata. The snake was both pretty and small—they are the smallest species of snake in Ohio, even more diminutive than the Worm snake.

I also had a difficult time getting pictures of it. I would get it posed and before I could bring the camera around and get it to focus, the snake would be a foot away from where I had put it. Getting a shot of the red belly was even worse. The snake would just not lie belly up for me. I finally got it worked out by holding it in my semi-closed hand. This apparently scared it because it coiled up with its head under its body and wouldn’t move. I quickly flipped it over and took a shot while it was still too terrified to move. Talk about wildlife harassment!
Despite several more minutes searching the area, I found no more snakes, and decided to move on. I began driving slowly through the rest of the preserve, scanning the terrain for likely habitat and cover. It was after 7 pm when I noticed the corner of a piece of tin sticking up out of the short spring grass. After getting out of the car, I noticed several other sheets of tin; this looked like a very promising spot.

I began cautiously looking under the pieces of tin, first lifting them high enough with my new snake hook (thanks, Joel) to safely grasp them with my hand. The third piece held the jackpot—the endangered Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake. Since I did not have my camera with me last time, I was determined to get some good shots of this one.

The lateness of the hour and the resulting cooling temperatures were on my side, the snake seemed hardly disturbed by my presence, barely lifting its head to see what was disturbing its little hideout.

The first thing I noticed about this 'sauga was the coloration. It was almost the same tones as a fox snake. Most of the pictures I have seen, as well as the only actual specimen I have come into contact with, were much more a dull gray.

You may be wondering what this Rattlesnake is doing lying in what is essentially a mudpuddle. After all, aren’t rattlesnakes usually found in the desert or the mountains? While it is true that many rattlesnakes are found in such habitats, the Eastern Massasauga is one of the exceptions. In fact, one of the vernacular names for this snake is the “Swamp Rattler”. It is at home in swamps and moist meadows, and even hibernates in crayfish burrows in such environs.
As I said, the snake did not see to concerned that I had “blown its cover” and was taking pictures of it. It didn’t rattle, even when I carefully positioned (with my hook) its tail so that I could get a clear shot of the noisy little attachment.
It was not until I actually tried to pick it up with the snake hook that it began buzzing at me, and only then for a couple seconds. I did, however get a couple of good looks at the fangs—as I lifted it, it snapped at me. Again I was amazed at how fast these animals can move when they want to. I really did not feel like pressing my luck playing Steve Irwin, and there was no one there to photograph me holding it, so, after having replaced the sheet of tin, I gently lowered the snake to the ground and went my way.

I did have one short moment of pure terror. When I got back to the car, I realized that my keys were not in my pocket. Or in the backpack I had been carrying. Or in the car I was now frantically searching. Not cool! I figured that I must have dropped them somewhere along the way.

I retraced my steps and sure enough, there they were, right next to the piece of tin under which I had found the ‘sauga. Can you blame me for dropping them at the sight of a rattlesnake? Probably not. I know, they should have been in my pocket in the first place.

At this point, the sun had set, and it was time to get home. I was tired, hungry, and there was a cat that desperately needed some attention.

The next post (my first snake of '06) will be slightly out of chronilogical order, but I couldn't wait to show of my cool new pics. Enjoy!

Night of the Salamanders!

I have a cousin, name of Doug. When I was little we called him cousin Dougie. My siblings and I always thought that Dougie was cool for several reasons. One was that he lived out in the country in, what seemed to us at the time, a huge house, with an in home theater in the basement. In the 70's this was a lot less rare than it is today-- especially in rural Wisconsin. Not everyone had projection laser disc players hooked up to top notch stereo equipment placed before a leather sectional couch! I had never been to a movie theater, but I was sure that watching Star Wars in this manner was superior to any other viewing option.

Another reason we thought highly of Dougie was that he gave us things-- hand-me-down (would it be hand-me-overs from a cousin?) clothes, old toys, and animals. Yes, animals. As I recall, he gave me at least three snakes-- all of which I killed (due to poor husbandry) or lost-- and two salamanders.

I had never seen salamanders before, and found them fascinating. These were just your-run-of-the-mill tiger salamanders, a dull brownish-gray with dull yellow spots, but to an ignorant 9 year old, the were as exotic as a blue-faced macaque. We somehow managed to keep them alive for over a year, housing them in a fish tank, of which one half was filled with sand and the other with water, and feeding them meal worms. I do not recall what ultimately became of them, and I am sure that my conscience is the lighter for that.

Before moving to Ohio, the only other salamader I had seen was on a job site as a security guard-- another tiger salamander which I found taking refuge from the heat of the day beneath an old piece of plastic.

Then last May, my sons and I were checking a little tract of land (the same one where I found this brown snake) for critters.

Suddenly we heard, "Dad, a LIZARD!" It was Joseph. Winfield and I came running quickly. While they seem rare, Five-lined Skinks do occur in our area, and we had been hoping to find one sometime. We found Joe stooped over a broken piece of clay tile looking at the little creature below. (The pics in this post may be "clicked on" to get a larger, clearer version.)

It was a salamander, the first non-tiger salamander I had ever seen. I was amazed at the fact that we found it in a semi-developed area so close to our house. I took this opportunity to explain the difference between lizards and salamanders to the boys as they had never seen either in the wild. They were rapt.

This find, coupled with all the salamanders we found in the Hocking Hills area, really piqued my interest in these little creatures. I decided to do some reading on the subject. Turns out, our library had not one, but two copies of the definitive work on Ohio Salamanders (by Pfingston and Downs). After some reading of this revisiting the Peterson field guide I came to suspect that this was an hybrid of Blue-spotted and Jefferson's Salamanders, which is weird because neither species occurs in its pure form in our area. I will not, however, take the time to go into the fascinating biology behind this.

Anyway, as I read more, I further learned that smallmouth salamanders also live in our neck of Ohio, and that all three of these species (members of the Ambystoma genus) can be found on rainy spring nights when the temp is about 50 F, or so, making their way to the spring pools of rainwater where they breed. Often, the easiest way to find them is to cruise the roads near woods harbouring such ponds, and spot the little pilgrims as they cross the road.

So as March rolled around I watched the thermometer and the weather forcast. Finally, the right night came-- Thursday, March 9. The weather had been in the 50's and we had had a good amount of precipitation, and more was predicted to come that night. The kids and I decided to go check it out.

At about 7:30 pm (temp: 56 F, conditions: light rain) we headed out. There were two places within a mile of our house I intended to hit. One was a county nature preserve with extensive vernal pools, the other was a stretch of road between two wooded tracts of land, near where we had found our first Ohio salamander. We decided to hit the road near the woods first, and we were not disappointed. We immediately began seeing several species of frogs (Western Chorus, Leopard, and Bullfrog, the first and last of which are pictured below in the "group photo").

Then, in the headlight, we saw something longer and slimmer in the road ahead. It was half crawling, half swimming through the scant water that lay on the road. It was a salamander. What was strange was that it looked as if it possessed characteristics of Jefferson's, Blue-spotted, and Smallmouth Salamanders. I decided to keep a few of the dozen or so we found for purposes of making a positive ID. Some of these photos are not the best, and I blame the minuteness of the subjects (the largest of the salamandes was only 5 inches long), my cheap digital camera, and my general ineptness.

This one is looks almost totally like a Jefferson's. The blue spots are a little more extensive than would be the case if it were pure, however. This one looks almost pure Blue-spotted in coloration, but the mouth looks Smallmouthish.
Whatever they are, they really are neet looking animals.
I emailed a prominent state herpetologist to see if he could help with a better ID. He was very interested and decided he would come by my house the next day to pick up a couple of specimens for genetic analysis. The "Jeffersonian complex" of salamanders (as it is called) is of particular interest to him. In fact he may assist in the revising of the Ohio Salamander book I referenced above.

He arrived at my house on Saturday evening, and I turned over the goods (later that night, I let the rest go). He was excited about both the salamanders I gave him as well as some previously unknown records of frogs (Western Chorus and Blanchard's Cricket) from our county. We talked for a while, and he gave me a couple of hints on where I might find some species I had not yet seen as well as some locales he would like me to check out for him to see population persist of some old locales on record. As he left he also told me that he believed the hybrid salamander populations (which are entirely female) were using male Smallmouth salamanders to fertilize their eggs (the male reproductive cells, merely stimulate the eggs to grow; they do not contribute any genetic material--making the offspring true clones of their mothers). I decided to see if I could find any.

The following Monday night I found this animal. As you might be able to tell, it is less blue on the sides, and is not so much spotted as it is blotched. This coupled with the convex snout and small mouth led me to believe it was a Smallmouth. However since it was not a male, neither I nor my new biologist friend could say for sure (he thought it was probably a hybrid).

The really interesting thing to me about these finds is that these animals are so common in a fairly developed area. They do spend much of their "active" portion of the year underground, coming out only on humid or rainy nights to forage. The real impressive sight, however, is the spring mating migration. One warm rainy night in March, and the neighborhood looks like some sort of weird horror film. The locations at which we found many of the salamanders and the direction they were coming from seemed to indicate that they had spent the winter in peoples front yards!

Anyway, I plan to go out and do a little more field research this weekend, weather permitting. As always, I will keep you posted.

You Have a WHAT in Your Basement?!

I run a snake farm.

This is a comparatively small operation (four breeder snakes, none over 4 feet long), more analogous to the guy who lives on the edge of town and keeps a chicken or two, than a full blown, free range, acre-upon-acre, ranch-type deal.

I feel it is only appropriate to point out here that the lovely Angela allows this to go on in her house with relatively little resistance, and I am deeply grateful. In order for you to be able to fully appreciate the magnitude of her tolerance, let me relay a charming anecdote from our first year of marriage.

It was nearing my birthday, and Angie made the mistake of asking me what I wanted. While she knew I had a pathological interest in snakes, she had no true idea of how deeply it ran. I wanted a pair of corn snakes; of course—what else would a newlywed request from his blushing bride. I will omit the details of the lengthy discussion that followed. I’m still not sure how I ever convinced her, although I do have a vague recollection of a week long hunger strike and several nights of feigning sobs into my pillow as we went to sleep. Anyway, some time around my birthday, I had two (male and female) hatchling corn snakes housed in a 10 gallon tank that I kept in a storage nook just off the living room. They ate several meals with no problem and everything seemed to be going great.

However, like many couples’ first apartments, ours was small and drafty. This meant two things. There were only a few places that were not “main rooms” (where I had been forbidden to keep the snakes) that were also remotely warm enough that they would not immediately freeze. Hence the storage nook. Turns out it was not warm enough either, and I never did get around to installing the dimmer switch on the under tank heater. As a result the cool zones in the tank were just plain cold, and the warm zones were scorching. As you might expect, the snakes began to refuse meals due to a digestive problem, the onset of which corresponded with the worsening of a previously undetected mite infestation. The snakes got skinnier and skinnier and more and more listless, and I soon expected their demise.

Here is where things went truly awry. The snakes could not just die and prove my care inadequate. Oh no— they had to ESCAPE FIRST! I think several weeks of not eating had made them just slender enough to squeeze through the crack between the tank walls and frame of the pre-manufactured, clip-on screen top.

Words cannot describe the distress this caused my poor wife. Oddly, my assurances that the roaming serpents would not survive more than a few days to terrorize her were of little consolation. Go figure! At some point, though, she found it in her heart to forgive me, and harmony again reigned in our little home.

Then my mother-in-law came to visit. I know what you are thinking, but it is not like that. I get along with my wife’s parents just fine and, in fact, rather look forward to their visits. For her part, my mother-in-law was sweet enough not to complain about having to sleep on the couch (we had only one bedroom and one bed at that point). It was the dead snake under the seat cushion with which she took issue.

After that there was a new rule in our house. No. Snakes. Allowed.

Fast forward about 9 years. A combined set of complicated circumstances involving my job moving me to back to Wisconsin where I had access to facilities outside of my domicile at which I could keep snakes. The fountain of grace that is my wife modified the rule above and I quickly acquired 2.4 (2 male, 4 female) corn snakes that I intended to use as breeding stock. Fast forward 4 months. My job moves me back to Ohio. Somehow, I am allowed to keep the snakes in my daughters room. You read that correctly; I have no explanation (they were in hibernation and kept in a cold corner in bins under a sheet. See a picture of said bins below)

Fast forward (last ff, I promise) 3 months, we sell our home and purchase/move into one with a basement, as well as no bedroom that actually gets cold enough to hibernate reptiles in. The snake farm takes up residence in the basement and things get busy. My brother helps me construct a room so that people who do not wish to see the snakes do not have to as well as to keep the cat from trying to get at the babies.

Breeding snakes is relatively simple and the process goes something like this. You start with healthy male and female snakes of breeding age. Keep them well fed and house them separately in a suitable environment. I use plastic bins kept in a custom built rack (building this tested the limits of my carpentry skills to the extreme!) heated with electric heat tape wired through a dimmer switch. In the winter turn the heat off and let them hibernate at 45-65 F for about 2 or 3 months. Warm them in the spring and resume the proper feeding schedule. After their first shed skin of the year, they will be "in season" and introduce a single male into the female's enclosure. Breeding, in my limited experience, usually ensues rather quickly. Occasionally, if the female is not yet "ready" she will fight off the male; when this occurs, I usually wait a week and try the pair again-- this has worked every time.

After about 45 days and another shed skin, the females are ready to lay their eggs, which they do in a plastic shoe box filled with wet spaghnum moss. I usually place this in their enclosure when the female "turns blue" prior to her pre-oviposition shed. See results below

The eggs hatch after an average of 9-10 weeks of incubation. Prime temperature is about 85 F, although my incubation set up does not allow me to hold that precise a temp. Still, I have had excellent success at temps ranging from 75-85 degrees.

When the eggs are ready to hatch, the snakelings cut slits in the eggs, then emerge a day or so later. A clutch of eggs seems to take 2-3 days to hatch out, occasionally 4. I believe this window of time to be longer than "normal" due to lack of uniformity in incubation temperature.

After the snakes hatch, I put them in a miniature version of the enclosures the adults enjoy.

Within a week or so of hatching, the neonates will shed their skin for the first time. After this they are usually ready for their first meal-- they are fed newborn, or "pinkie" mice. Most pet stores will buy a newborn snake after they have voluntarily eaten two or three meals. Average price I get from a pet store is $12.50 per snake. Private parties have paid me $15 to $22.50.

Sounds like a breeze doesn't it. I have, however, encountered some difficulties.

Snakes can get sick. If it is anything more than the most minor of illnesses, they require veterinary care. This is not something I wish to pay for, nor do I really have the means. So, when one of my females quit eating after laying her first clutch of eggs, I was truly worried. Then green goo started oozing from her mouth, and I knew I was going to lose a productive animal (her first year of egg production for me she laid one less egg than the snake who laid the most, even though she was much smaller). Rather than let her waste away, I put her in a ziploc bag and tossed her in the freezer where she simply went to sleep and never woke up. That took me down to 2.3. With only three females, I really only needed one male so I sold one to a pet store for the same amount I paid for him. Down to 1.3.

The other problem I ran into was getting some of the more stubborn neonates to start eating. In the wild a baby corn snake's first several meals will often consist solely of cold blooded prey such as small lizards and tree frogs. This means that captive bred snakes, especially if they are the offspring of wild caught breeding stock (which 4 of my original breeders were) are not always too eager to start eating pinkie mice right out of the egg. It is not that they are too small, just that the mouse smell does not trigger a feeding response from the snake.

The solution to this difficulty is rather simple, but for some reason it took me a long time to break down and implement it. I was sure those little guys would get hungry enough and just start eating mice eventually. Finally I gave in. I went to the local pet store and bought an anole. Most of you know what this lizard is even if you don't think you do. They are often sold in pet stores as chameleons, and while they can change from green (their normal color) to brown to gray, they are not true chameleons and are, in fact, native to the southeastern US-- same as corn snakes. I took the pinkie mice I intended to feed to the heretofore non-eater snakes, and rubbed them all over with this lizard to impart it's scent to them. It worked like a charm. 100% of the snakes that had not taken a meal started eating and were quickly trained to eat unscented mice.

Oddly, this year, even the lizard scent trick has failed to get some of my meal refusing snakes to eat. I have lost 3 to self-starvation so far.

That may prompt some of you to wonder just how many snakes my farm produces anually. Last year, 49 of 52 eggs hatched, one baby died for unexplained reasons, and I had sold the rest by march of this year.

Despite haveing one less female, my remaining snakes produced 55 eggs this year, largely due to a better feeding schedule. 54 eggs hatched and so far three have not made it due to meal refusals. I have already sold 15, and am getting rid of 12 more next week. Below is one of the more attractive hatchlings I produced last year.
Corn snakes come in a staggering assortment of selectively bred color and pattern mutations. These are called cultivars. To veiw the variety available click here. I am currently working with a male that appears to be hypomelanistic (having less than the normal amount of black pigment, sort of halfway to albino). I am conducting breeding trials to confirm this. Two of my females are anerythristic (having no red or "black albino"). These snakes are greay and black. When you combine the two traits, you get ghost corns. Kind of a faded version of the anerythristic. The cool thing about this is that, once I finalize my breeders, I can get 4 different kinds of offspring from just one pair of snakes due to two different recessive traits combining differently in the offspring (you may want to review your punnet squares from high school science). One clutch of eggs could theoretically produce normal, hypomelanistic, black albino, and ghost corn snakes.

It is just this sort of thing that holds my interest in this endeavor and makes all the work worthwhile.

Just So You know . . .

At about 1:30 pm on September 9th of this year I found my first Fowler's Toad/Bufo woodhousi ssp. in Hardy County, West Virginia. For those who care, a Fowler's toad differs from your standard American Toad/Bufo americanus in the following ways:

1. The dark blotches often contain three or more warts. In the American toad there are two or less.
2. The Fowler's toad's paratoid glands abut the ridge behind the eye. American toads usually have a separation.
3. There are no enlarged warts on the tibia (forearm) of the Fowler's toad.
4. The Fowler's toad lacks dark blotching on the "chest" area.

Memorize these characteristics and you will never again be at a loss when someone says, "Boy, wonder if that is a Fowler's toad or an American?"

What was I doing in Hardy County, WV; you ask? Taking a weekend canoe/fishing trip on the South Branch of the Potomac River; you know, the one that George Washington threw a silver dollar across? Of course, at the point that I fished it, some places were narrow enough that I could have thrown George Washington across. Ok, slight exaggeration, but the stretch we were on is somewhat smaller than the main stream.

Anyway, it was a great trip. 4 of us fishing from two canoes for an average of 9 hours a day and covering about 13 miles of river caught and released around 240 fish. Species included were smallmouth bass (our main quarry on this expedition), rock bass, largemouth bass, longear sunfish (which I had never seen before), rainbow trout, fallfish (suprisingly good fighters), and some strange looking, unidentified sucker type fish.

Lots of water snakes were also seen, including a baby one I caught that appeared to be lacking any red/brown pigment. It was black and gray (including the semi-circular belly markings), the same shades as an anerythristic corn snake. I don't know if it was a true mutant, or if red pigment takes time to develop in Nerodia like it does in Elaphe/Panthertophis.

A fun trip, and a destination to which, I believe, I will be returning.

In Danger, Part 1

“God blessed [Adam and Eve]; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth’.” Genesis 1:28

I find it interesting that people who accept the Biblical account of creation as fact and those who chose to accept the concept of evolution as fact often disagree over the issue of conservation as well. I know that people who believe in evolution also disagree with other “evolutionists” just as “creationists” have differing views on environmental concerns. I guess it is the hardliners (of which I might be considered one) I am talking about. The most extreme assertions either side would be likely to make might go something as follows: conservatives would allow anyone to use and abuse any resource for any old reason (usually to make money), and liberals would let every last human on the planet die if it meant that spotted owl populations would remain stable.

The fact is that there are “radicals” on both ends of the spectrum when it comes to this issue. I have personally met people were willing to poach game animals, fish, or other protected species for their own personal pleasure or profit. I am sure there are worse offenders out there. We have all heard well-documented stories of the way property has been misused (usually in order to make money) to the point of gross contamination. Watch one episode of “Animal Cops” and you will see ways people have treated animals previously unimaginable to you.

On the other hand, I have also met people (yes, more than one) who have told me, and I am not making this up, “Animals are people, too.” This comment was usually meant to help me decide to not go fishing, not go hunting, not eat meat, or to only buy clothes made of hemp rather than risk wearing a garment a component of which might once have been part of another living creature, or something like that. Of course, most of us would fall somewhere between these two extremes.

The circles in which I run tend to be more conservative, and many of the people I know are turned off to “environmentalism” by the vociferous extremity of that sect. You know, the "fishing hurts/it's mad to eat meat/dolphins are smarter than people" bunch, the kind of people who would print something like this:
As a result of repeated exposure to such dishonesty, my “crowd” tends to react by swinging in the other direction-- perhaps a bit too far. It seems to me, at least, that many of the people I know are generally unconcerned with how resources are handled, trusting that the institution of government will not let things get out of hand. After all the government is so big, keeping such a sharp eye on everyone, and now they have the EPA— how could anything ever go wrong?

The passage of scripture above makes it clear, however, that it is the responsibility of every last person on the planet, whether the population is as low as two or as high as nearly 7 billion, to “subdue“ and “rule over” (doesn’t the word “manage” nicely encompass those two concepts?) the living resources entrusted to us as a group. And while citizens routinely delegate responsibilities to their government, the fact is they remain individually responsible for the actions of their elected leaders. All this begs the question, “What can/should I do?” This is a good question, a tough question for which I do not claim to have all the answers, but I do have some suggestions.

1. Take responsibility. Some Christians I know latch on to the verse that says-- this is a paraphrase-- “the seasons and cycles of the earth will continue until the Lord returns to judge humanity” and assume that nothing we do to the earth or it’s creatures will be of any significant harm. Indeed, inherent in the command to multiply and fill the earth while managing its living resources is the implication, dare I say, the promise, that we could reproduce until the earth were literally full, and still the resources, if properly managed, would be plenteous enough to supply every need. However, each human as well as the earth are now in a fallen state. The earth will no longer freely yield the bounty it would have prior to the curse, and it is against our own bent to take the steps that would maximize its produce; rather, if left entirely to our own devices, we would render the planet barren in short order. A fact rarely considered by anyone is that humans are probably responsible for the extinction of every species that has ever been extirpated from the globe.

Take dinosaurs, for instance. Most Christians would say that dinosaurs faced extinction shortly after the flood as a result of the radical changes in earth’s climate precipitated by that cataclysmic event. And why did God send the flood? Oh yeah, man’s sin. Then there are the myriad cases in which species have become extinct as a direct result of waste, carelessness, greed, or just the ever increasing demands of humanity upon its environment. Please do not misunderstand me. If it comes down to the necessary extinction of an animal species in order to preserve the life of a human population-- or even avoid causing them undue hardship, I chose people every time. I maintain, however, that the only reason this choice ever has to be made is due the limitation of the earth’s ability to support life imposed by the curse as a result of our sin. Heavy, huh?

My point is this: we ought to be keenly aware that our actions can and do have a direct or indirect impact on the environment, and that we will be held accountable for them.

2. Give/obey the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ is looking for people to worship Him. If you would like to learn more about this, click here. If you are already a believer, I would ask you to consider that giving the good news of salvation to others is the surest cure to all of society’s ills. It is impossible to legislate morality into another man’s heart, and you can only legislate behavior as long as you are in the majority. It is the transforming power of the gospel that will change the thief into a benefactor, the liar into someone who is reliable, the murderer into a lifesaver, and the little boy next door who likes to blow up frogs with firecrackers into a conservationist. It is a relationship with the Creator God, rather than seminars, leaflets, or publicity campaigns, will cause people to begin to understand that a snake need not be dead to be “good”, and that even those creatures most repulsive to us were made by God to fill a purposeful niche in their environment, and to declare His glory.

3. Treat property and animals with respect and kindness. The Bible says that a righteous man has regard for the life of his beast, and that a lazy man will not roast the game that he has killed. These and many other passages point out the fact that animal resources are to be treated humanely and without a wasteful attitude. When is it ok to kill an animal just to kill it? Many people do or would kill any snake they found on their property, especially if it was near the house. Ask them why and you will get answers ranging from “I can’t stand snakes” to “I was just protecting my family”. Ironically, most of the snakes they kill are either completely harmless species that would flee from any human encountered or beneficial rodent predators. Perhaps even more ironically, a good percentage of the snakes that could pose a threat to them or their family or livestock are protected by law. That’s right it is illegal to kill them. Such is the case with 2/3 of Ohio’s venomous species, and 100% of Wisconsin’s are protected. This is not as outrageous as it sounds. Even rattlesnakes would rather turn tail and “run” rather than confront a human, and most of the bites that do occur happen as a result of purposeful and careless handling of a dangerous specimen. Even then, amazingly few are fatal. Quite simply, if you don’t want snakes on your property, keep it neatly mowed and as free of debris as possible. This will keep most species away, including the dangerous ones. Now about those spiders in the basement . . .

4. Vote responsibly. A candidate’s environmental stance is not the most important issue to look at as you consider whether or not to vote for him. It can, however, give you insight into his philosophy as a whole. Does he worship creation more than the Creator? Would she “devour the earth”? His/her environmental policies might just tell you.

5. Volunteer to help. This is one of those things to do after you have done everything else. There are lots of ways to do this, ranging from things as simple as reporting poachers to the authorities to doing sampling of vernal pools to help monitor salamander populations. If you are able to recognize them, report sightings of “species of concern” the DNR. These things are more important than you would think. We tend to have a rosy perspective on how things used to be. We kind of get to thinking that folks in the 1800’s killed whatever animals they wanted to eat or felt threatened by and they didn’t do any harm; what’s the big deal? An interesting example. In the late 1800’s deer populations in Wisconsin had been brought to a historic low. But with proper management this trend was reversed. In the 1990’s populations were so high that the average annual number of deer killed legally by hunters was larger than the total state deer herd had been 100 years before. Now that is having proper “dominion”. Why is it that we tend to pursue that kind of management only for the animals that are cute and fuzzy and have names like “Bambi”?

This post was originally going to be about some of the endangered species I have found while out and about. I guess what you read above has kind of been brewing for a while and had to come out. I hope it helps you a basic understanding of my mindset, and that I am truly interested in these creatures and their welfare, and not just wanting to “play with them”, or worse yet, exploit them. My actual endangered species tales will be forthcoming.

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 mo