Weather: Mostly overcast. Around 56 degrees. Low wind.

Location: Alamakee CO. Iowa

Herpers: Jay Parsons, Austin Scharosch, Jim Scharosch & Matt Ricklefs

Account by: Matt Ricklefs

Thought of the Day: Cold day for cold blooded critters!

photo by Matt Ricklefs

photo by Matt Ricklefs

Jim and I were anxious to get out. The weather had been forecasted to be better but got steadily worse through the week. Jay had been telling us of some locations for some time and we finally got to checking them out. The weather was crappy. It ended up being worse than we even planned for, but we decided to go and at least scout some places out and who knows, maybe we would still get lucky.

When we got to our location it was still pretty early so we grabbed a pancake breakfast and then headed out. We scouted a couple of locations. Both looked pretty good. It was Timber Rattlesnake territory and that means other species will occur. After nosing around the fist site for a while we did come up with our first catch of the day. A Five-Lined Skink (Eumeces fasciatus).

photo by Matt Ricklefs

This was a male in breeding color and was about four and a half inches long. We took a little time and I got some fair shots as it was pretty cold and was moving slow for a while. After letting it go on its way we walked around a little more and then moved on.

At our next site we hiked up a fair sized ridge. At the top Austin spied a snake in a crack. Not much was showing and it was our first snake of the day. This was obviously a denning site. After close examination we discovered it was a Milk Snake. It was dug in good and Jim was able to grab its tail as it moved, but it was too dug in and we had to let it go lest we would injure it. It moved in too quick to allow pictures. We nosed around a little lower and found some Morel mushrooms.

photo by Matt Ricklefs

Jim also stumbled across a turkey on her nest and got some pics of the eggs!

photo by Jim Scharosch

photo by Jim Scharosch

He made sure not to get to close and the mother turkey never strayed far and was anxious to return to her next. We moved away not to upset her too much. As we moved down, I spied something moving and made a dive. It was an Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis s. sirtalis).

photo by Jim Scharosch

photo by Jim Scharosch

It was a pretty one and fair sized at about three feet long. As it was still cool (it never got above 64 degrees the whole day but was more sunny on and off) it posed fairly nice. I believe I twisted my wrist in the dive that still hurts as I type. The price we price we pay for herping! We let this one go and moved on.

Not far away we found more Morels and I found a small triangular Blatz Beer sign well worn and weathered.

photo by Matt Ricklefs

Under it was a Red-Bellied Snake (Storeria occipitomaculata).

photo by Jim Scharosch

It was nice sized at about seven and a half inches. We were able to get some pretty nice shots as it was cool out.

That was it for the day. It was fun to get out as a group and was good to see some new areas with some definite potential.

Until next time - Happy Herpin' my friends!!