5-17-09

Trip Details

Trip Details

Start Time: 9:30 a.m.

Weather: Mostly sunny. 67 degrees for a high. Mild winds.

Location: Jackson Co. Iowa

Herpers: Mike Pingleton, Jeff LeClere, Austin Scharosch, Jim Scharosch & Matt Ricklefs

Account by: Matt Ricklefs

Photos by: Jim Scharosch, Austin Scharosch and Matt Ricklefs

Thought of the Day: The road less traveled can make all the difference.

As you may know now, this is the third and last day of our Iowa Herptacular trip with special guest stars and good friends Mike Pingleton and Jeff LeClere. For the last day Austin joined us as well.

We arrived at our location at about 11:30 a.m. It was a nice day and we had high hopes for good finds. Our first find was a juvenile Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum) at about 5 inches.

Photos by Matt Ricklefs

To our pleasant surprise, this would be another day that Milks were plentiful. Again, in an effort for simplicity we will show the variety of milks more as a photo collage with the rest of our finds than an actual “ we found this milk, and then this one, etc”. As it turned out our count for the day for Milks was only a little off the previous day's. Next, we got our first Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) of the day.

Photos by Jim Scharosch

This one was about 35 inches. This would be a very unique day as all the Timbers we found were out and we did all situ shots without removing them from where they lay. There is a delicate balance between trying to get nice photographs and allowing the snakes to pretty much stay where they are. Some snakes you have to wrangle just by the way you find them. Timbers in the NE from Iowa eastward do best with minimal human intervention, so we make an effort to observe this. After another Milk, this one an adult at about 29 inches, we moved up the hill toward some rocky outcrops.

Photos by Jim Scharosch

Photo by Matt Ricklefs

Our next Timber was literally picture perfect. Any herpers and many other appreciators as well, can get a mental picture of snakes on a rocky outcrop. It’s the classic “denning” picture.

Here is a "find the snake" shot.

Photo by Jim Scharosch

We had this similar sighting back in 2004 with some Black Rat Snakes, but this day we were to find another Timber. This was a small one at about 20 inches, but it was basking on a rock ledge and it was just awesome. We did get some nice pictures before it decided to move back into the rocks.

Photo by Jim Scharosch

Photos by Matt Ricklefs

We managed to get a few more shots after the retreat and it is pretty cool to see how where they go and how they casually retreat to where they would normally be hiding from prying eyes.

We found a few more Milks and an nice male Five-Lined Skink (Eumeces fasciatus).

After that, we spotted our third and last Timber of the day. This one was about 38 inches and was tucked nicely among some bramble near a small rocky outcrop. We couldn’t get in quite as well as with the first, but still managed some adequate situ shots.

Photo by Jim Scharosch

Photos by Matt Ricklefs

When we finished our “main” area we decided to try another hillside. Since there were the five of us it was a little easier to work more and newer areas. We walked up an access road to an open hillside. Jim and I had always liked this area, but had yet to explore. It was the right exposure and had a lot of rocky outcrops with open field on top. We started turning rocks and the Milks came fast. We found eight in a span of about twenty feet and continued to find a few more.

Photos by Jim Scharosch

Photos by Matt Ricklefs

Photos by Austin Scharosch

All in all the total for the day on Milks was 17. This was amazing. The road less traveled did indeed make all the difference – how deep, eh! Normally we are in Kansas when we find this many milks. Overall the total for the three day trip was 48 if I have my count right - and that was just milks!

Considering the questionable weather at times we had a great trip. We got to spend some time with good friends and contemplate many ideas that add to our collective knowledge. This is a very valuable resource. Being able to pool knowledge and talk out ideas and then reference experiences or then to apply theories to future trips can add greatly to ones understanding. Sometimes it adds more questions, and that is fun too. Until next time…

Happy friends and happy herpin’!!!