5-16-10

Trip Details

Start Time: Noon

Weather: Cloudy with little wind. About 63 degrees.

Location: Wabaunsee County, Kansas

Herpers: Jim Scharosch & Matt Ricklefs

Account by: Matt Ricklefs

Photos by: Jim Scharosch & Matt Ricklefs

Thought of the Day: Is a vulture a bad sign for herpng?

It's quite often you see vultures out and about in the areas you are herping. It can be hard to get pictures of them perched as they will often fly off when you stop or especially if you get out of a vehicle. As we drove to our first location we spotted a Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) on top of an old school building.

Photo by Matt Ricklefs

Photo by Jim Scharosch

We backed up and got some fair shots out the window and it seemed relatively unconcerned with us doing this. We then headed out.
The weather was cool and cloudy, but the sprinkles were few and far between. We knew we would be able to find some stuff, we just didn't know how much would be out.
At our first location we have found milks, kings, racers, and especially Osage Copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix phaeogaster).

Photos by Matt Ricklefs

On this day we just found copperheads, three in fact. The first was a juvenile at about thirteen inches.

Photos by Matt Ricklefs

Photo by Jim Scharosch

The second copperhead was an adult at about twenty-four inches.

Photos by Matt Ricklefs

Photo by Jim Scharosch

The third copperhead was somewhere in-between at about sixteen inches.

Photo by Matt Ricklefs

Photo by Jim Scharosch

We were glad to have scored these with the day being as it was. I did however band my thumb up pretty good getting a large rock back the way we found it though. Being cool out, the snakes actually posed fairly nicely. If I could be assured that snakes would be plentiful on a day like this, I would always prefer it. The lighting works well, it is cooler for hiking and the snakes pose just a littler better often times. We take what we can get when we get them.

We herped the rest of the day and it wasn't until almost the last rock, literally, that we had our next and last find. It was a double, two Great Plains Rats Snakes (Elaphe gutatta emoryi). One was an adult at about twenty-five inches and the other was a juvenile at about twelve inches. The adult was rather cantankerous and was even hissing which was a little odd.

Photos by Jim Scharosch

Photo by Matt Ricklefs

The juvenile had a particularly nice "ghost head" on the top of its head that I got a close up of.

Photos by Matt Ricklefs

We took some time to get pictures before heading out. We had made plans to stay with Jim's sister and had a little bit of a drive and still needed to get cleaned up and ready to take her out to dinner.

Dinner that night was at the 75th Street Brewery and the food and beer were great. It was a good way to end an "alright" day. The weather was continuing to look questionable for the next day so we would see how happy we would be herping on Monday!

Tune in for the next post, same herp time, same herp channel.