5-1-11

Trip Details

Location: Southern Kansas

Weather: Cool and rainy and getting rainier by the moment. High of about 73 degrees and moderate wind.

Time: 12:33 p.m.

Herpers: Courtney Gaverth, Kevin Scott, Jim Scharosch & Matt Ricklefs

Account by: Matt Ricklefs

Photos by: Jim Scharosch & Matt Ricklefs

Thought of the Day: What a crappy day…but we still found stuff.

It was a crappy, rainy day. We kept hoping for a break in the rain and it did hold off a tad at our first location only to start pouring soon after. However, we did go to an amazing spot with an old foundation and a fair amount of junk that was a herpers paradise. We managed to find a 5 foot Black Rat Snake (Elaphe o. obsoltea) within a few minutes of getting there. It was in shed and we didn't stop to take any pictures because of the rain.

Next we found a nice Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus).

It was a nice sized one at about 4 feet and a very typical, but light Kansas Timber. It is always an odd thing for me finding Timbers in this habitat as our NE Iowa Timbers are the more forest hillside dwellers. This was not a surprise as Kevin had mentioned they were here, but under the conditions, even finding one under tin was amazing. We also found a nice size water snake that we didn’t get pics of.

That was all for the day. Jim and I, who had amazing camping weather up to this point, decided to head back home this day as the rest of the day was pretty much shot for the area. Of course later on the way home and a long ways north it was fairly pleasant. It was good to be going home though and this was just the start of the season, especially in Iowa.

So long for now, and happy herpin’.