10-2-01

Trip Details

Trip Details

Herp Trip: Tuesday, October 2, 2001.

Herper: Matt Ricklefs

Location: Linn County

Time: About 5:00 pm

Temp/Conditions: 70 degrees. Calm, partly sunny.

In the same area I had encountered the Eastern Hognose Snake on September 19, I returned for what will probably be my last outing for the year. It is a nice walk and has several favorable areas and quite a diversity. This area has produced Bullsnakes, Fox Snakes, Eastern Hognose, Racers, Garters, Brown Snakes, Water Snakes, Blanding’s Turtles, Snapping Turtles and Painted Turtles. I had only found a couple of Garter Snakes on my walk so far. It’s always nice to find something and I still enjoy even finding Garters and Browns. In this time of the year, there is a lot of wildlife in general moving around and with the changing leaves makes for a great walk. I came to an area where earlier in the spring there was a nice metal door that had been sitting near some other debris. This seemed so nice in fact that I moved it to a slightly more favorable area not too much further away on a nice exposed sunny slope. Upon reaching this on this day, I turned it over to find a Garter had my found my decision to its liking. I picked it up and looked at it for a few seconds as it had some nice color. I began to put the door back down and in looking almost straight down at my feet there was a baby Bullsnake curled up trying to avoid detection.

This was a welcome find. I got some footage of it with my camcorder. It was very wiley but never tried to strike. After getting some good footage I released it back under the replaced door. I noticed that it went back to the same area and "snuggled" back in nicely. That will probably be it for the year. An extremely good year I think.

Until next time, good herpin!!