5-12-04

Trip Details

Location: Linn County, Iowa

Conditions: Cloudy and windy. Temperature about 62 degrees

Time: 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm

Herpers: Jim & Austin Scharosch

We stopped by one of our local sites where we always see a bunch of Garter Snakes. Today was no exception, as we turned up about twenty Garter Snakes of various flavors under some large pieces of carpet. We have found Fox Snakes here in the past, but not this year. We walked out into an open area were Austin and I had done some “habitat improvement” a few weeks ago. We had put some scrap lumber scavenged from local building sites out near some pine trees in a small area of sand prairie. We knew it was too early to check them, as they had not settled in yet, but we went out there anyway. When we checked the third board, there were two Garter Snakes under it. That is a nice sign for things to come, I hope. On the way back to the truck, we noticed a board that we had walked right past at least three times this spring without noticing it. We turned it, and among the millions of ants, we found a yearling Fox Snake (Elaphe vulpina).

This was a nice find, as we haven’t found a lot of Fox Snakes yet this year. This one had a very black and white coloration. Some baby Fox Snakes are more olive colored. After I removed the nasty ants that were biting my hand, we took some pics and returned the snake back under the board. Not a bad trip, for just a quick stop off.