5-18-13
Trip Details
Location: Madison County, IA; Harrison County, MO
Weather: About 74 degrees, but a high in the mid 80ís. Low Wind.
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Herpers: Austin Scharosch, Jim Scharosch & Matt Ricklefs
Account by: Matt Ricklefs
Thought of the Day: We're not in Kansas anymore yet
Photo by Matt Ricklefs
It was time for a road trip! Austin had time in his summer break from Iowa State to come along for the fun and we set off a pleasant spring morning in a southwestward direction on to Kansas; but first a stop in the land of the ginormous milks...Madison County. A lot of people assume the famous bridges there are form people, but that is not true. They are to enable the giant milks to go across the streams more easily. Just wanted to see if you were paying attention...
Our first stop however was to look for Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus). In Madison county they are more "free ranging" and opportunistic on where they occur. Very similar to the habits as you continue south into Missouri and Kansas. In the eastern part of Iowa they adhere to a much more traditional habitat of limestone bluffs and hillsides more similar to the Timbers out east. This also makes them more vulnerable. However, we were at out spot in central Iowa and our first Timber was a biggie. It was a little rough from coming out of its overwinter recently. It was about 45 inches. It was basking in the rocks so we did allow it to just do so and took all pictures in situ.
Photo by Matt Ricklefs
Photo by Jim Scharosch
As Jim was working his way down to get photos, he spotted another timber on the crawl. This one was smaller than the first, probably around two and a half feet long. It crawled thru the rocks and slipped into a crevice.
Photo by Jim Scharosch
The third Timber Austin found partially out on the crawl and it continued that way. No wrangling could get it still so we did the best we could. It too was pretty rough from just emerging and needed to shed.
Photos by Matt Ricklefs
Photo by Austin Scharosch
Timber number four (yes...it was already a good day) was in very good shape and actually was a bit more accommodating for pictures.
Photos by Matt Ricklefs
Photos by Austin Scharosch
My snake whispering was working a little better by this time. We took some time getting some nice shots and negotiating around A LOT of poison ivy. I also got a pic of Auz in action taking pics.
Our next find was a juvenile Racer (Coluber constrictor) in fine shape. After doing the usual ball up I was able to get it to pose pretty nicely.
Photo by Matt Ricklefs
Timber number five was a very interesting greenish color and the first shot is immediately after I uncovered it. It was smaller, around 24 inches, and took all the pics as it sat there.
Photo by Matt Ricklefs
Photo by Austin Scharosch
In between Timbers we did find out first Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum). A juvenile, but in nice shape.
Photos by Matt Ricklefs
Soon Austin found another milk snake. This one was a sub-adult about sixteen inches long.
Photo by Austin Scharosch
Timber number six was a fun one. We saw its coil just sticking out and you can see in the following pics discovery and uncovery, and a bit of Jimfoolery.
Photos by Matt Ricklefs
So after safely lifting the rock, we took some photos.
Photo by Matt Ricklefs
Photo by Austin Scharosch
We could have taken these pics and then tried to put the rock back on top of it. Of course, that could have had an unfortunate outcome. As good field herpers know you usually do need to move the subject out of the way before replacing the rock. If your skills with rock turning are good, you can place it back just as you found it and more often than not it does kind of "lock" back into place. You know you've done a good job when the subject, in this case a 30 inch or so Timber Rattlesnake can comfortably find its way back under. Sometimes it is possible to place a rock back down with the snake still inplace, but even though there may be a brief disturbance it is safer to move and then release the critter back under.
Photo by Matt Ricklefs
This was it for the first spot and we were already happy with the results. We moved on and our first find at the next location was indeed a good sized, very typical Milk Snake.
Photo by Matt Ricklefs
Photo by Austin Scharosch
This one was a good 32 inches long and had the big saddles often seen in milks in this area.
I paused briefly for a quick picture of an Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis). This was a little rough and about 18 inches long.
Photo by Matt Ricklefs
Next, Jim pulled up a very nice Milk, about 17 inches long.
Photos by Matt Ricklefs
Photos by Austin Scharosch
It was in excellent shape and very clean. We took a little time getting some pictures on this one. That was the last stop here and we headed for our third site.
We found our seventh and final Timber for the day at the last spot we hit in Iowa. This one was dug in pretty well and bolted fairly quickly, but we did get some in situ shots before it headed under. It was about 20 inches long.
Photos by Matt Ricklefs
Photo by Jim Scharosch
We headed down I-35 and had one side stop on the way down that Jim and I had found on a previous trip. It had yielded Prairie Kings before but today the only one home was a Racer about 20 inches long.
Photos by Matt Ricklefs
I did take a little time with this one as it was going to be our last stop for the day and we would be going into Kansas City to stay with Jim's sister Jill.
Stay tuned for our Kansas post...coming up next! Happy herps to you!
