3-26-10

Trip Details

Start Time: 5:30 p.m.

Weather: Mostly Sunny. 76 degrees for a high. Very light winds.

Location: Linn County Iowa

Herpers: Matt Ricklefs

Account by: Matt Ricklefs

Photos by: Matt Ricklefs

Thought of the Day: Slow emergence

This was the second day it had been 70 degrees or over since fall. Does that sound vaguely familiar? If you read the last post it would… This time the night had only gone down to the low 50 degrees so I thought I would continue to observe the emergence.

There was to be one other sign of the spring emergence - turkeys. In this case the Eastern Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris).

You will see there was a gobbler that was conveying “Hey… check me out, I’m AWESOME!” They tolerated my presence pretty well, but then again they were a bit preoccupied with each other.
I walked one of my whole areas and as I was going back to the car I stopped to check a small piece of fiberglass and found an Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis).

It topped out at about 16 inches. I was hoping to get at least a Garter and that I did.

Spring is here and things are beginning to peek out of their hiding places and venture forth. It has been nice as this is one of the earlier seasons we have had in Iowa. In fact we have not had snake posts this early yet. Close, but not quite in March. Now we do.

Happy Herping!