9-27-10

Trip Details

Location: Linn County, Iowa

Conditions: 72 degrees and sunny with light wind.

Time: 5:00 p.m.

Herpers: Matt Ricklefs
Account by: Matt Ricklefs
Photos by: Matt Ricklefs

Thought of the Day: Tucked in for a long winter's nap

It was a nice fall day and instead of staying in and hitting the elliptical; I decided to head out and do a little walking at a herp spot instead. It was getting dark and cool fairly quick so I didn't expect much, but you never know.

At my first area I found a few garter snakes out wandering around but did not make any moves to catch and photograph. I moved to my next spot and almost was going to pass up a spot that is a known hibernacula since I didn't think there would be anything around, but then decided to go there. It paid off. There under some debris was a nice Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum) that was just catching the last of the day's heat before settling in for the night.

This one was about twenty-two inches long.

I wandered around a bit more and wasn't finding much but did see an interesting group of adult and juvenile bugs on some prairie plants so I took a few pics.

As I was heading out I had several Northern Leopard Frogs (Rana pipiens) jumping around in some tall wet grass and decided to get a picture of one sitting.

It was about three inches long.

That was it. We have a trip planned for the weekend, so we have at least one more post before things start to get really wintery.

Until next time...happy herpin'