9-6-10

Photo by Matt Ricklefs

Trip Details

Location: Jackson County, Iowa

Conditions: 76 degrees and sunny with little wind.

Time: about 10:00 a.m.

Herpers: Jim Scharosch & Matt Ricklefs
Account by: Matt Ricklefs
Photos by: Jim Scharosch & Matt Ricklefs

Thought of the Day: "She's a big girl."

Fall is getting nearer and we knew we only had a few more times we may be able to get out. We decided to go to my aunt and uncle's place as in the last two years I had gone alone and done pretty well, a fact that had not gone unnoticed by Jim.

We had a non-herp mission on this trip as well. In the past couple of years we had found a new rock cut on a "road" going up a hill and it was getting fairly overgrown where we found the majority of our Milk Snakes. On this trip we did some tree/weed trimming and it looks really good now.

Photo by Matt Ricklefs

We will have another opportunity this fall most likely to see how it worked, but the real test will be in the spring.

As it was we did find out first Milk Snakes (Lampropeltis triangulum) here. The first was darker but still nice and about fifteen inches.

Photos by Matt Ricklefs

The next was also dark and closer to twenty-one inches.

Photo by Jim Scharosch

The third milk of the day was about sixteen inches and had really nice contrasting colors with dark bars.

Photos by Jim Scharosch

As Jim came up to one of our "good areas" he spotted someone lying out getting some sun. It was a Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) about three feet long.

Photos by Jim Scharosch

Photos by Matt Ricklefs

It did not take long to recognize, and you can see in many of the pictures, that it was a very gravid female. Throughout all the pictures we took of her she did not move at all. It just flicked her tongue a few times. So not only are the pictures in situ, but she remained undisturbed.

After this we found several Milk Snakes ranging from juveniles to adults and many color varieties.

Photos by Matt Ricklefs

Photos by Jim Scharosch

A few notables are the juveniles Jim and I both found about the same time and got a "double picture" of them.

Photo by Matt Ricklefs

And of course one of my now famous "outtake" pics of a Milk Snake in its natural arboreal habitat (ha ha).

Photo by Matt Ricklefs

The day ended up with a fairly scrawny Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis).

Photo by Matt Ricklefs

My uncle's son and he raise greyhounds and have a very nice complex for them. As we drove out a caught a glimpse of a fairly familiar dog face. In a half of a second I realized that not only had we passed the dog runs, but that face was red. As it was it seems as we drove past a hedgerow we must have spooked a Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) and she bolted out into a field adjacent to the road and then relatively casually pranced back to a fence row across from the road.

Photos by Matt Ricklefs

It was pretty cool watching it. That was it, but a good day overall.

Foxy herpin!