5-10-14

Trip Details

Location: Missouri

Weather: Sunny and breezy, 85 degrees

Time: 5:00 PM

Herpers: Courtney Gaverth, Jeff LeClere, Jim Scharosch

Account by: Jim Scharosch

Photos by: Jim Scharosch (except where noted)

We got a late start today for various reasons, so we met up with Courtney at his timber den at about 1:00 PM. It was a warm day and it had been very dry the past few weeks. Hopes were high that we would see a large number of rattlesnakes at the den site.

On the way in, we turned a board and found a really nice Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum).

It was an adult about two feet long. The saddles were very orange colored and had darker red flecking. This flecking was also apparent in the light tan background color. It was a very pretty snake. It wasn't very cooperative for photos so my picture doesn't really do it justice.

As we worked our way around the den, we managed to find six Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus).

Anywhere else, six timbers would be a fantastic day. At this site, six timbers means they had either moved away from the den site or were hiding deeper in the rocks where we couldn't see them. It was pretty warm so either scenario seemed plausible. It was still great though. It's such an awesome area.

We walked past a creek on the way out and spotted a Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon) laying on a rock.

On the way out we checked a couple of boards and turned up a Black Ratsnake (Elaphe obsoleta).

We flipped some junk near the vehicle and found another black ratsnake.

We moved on to another site in a different county. Turning rocks in this area revealed a young milk snake.

It was about twelve inches long.

Soon we found another milk snake.

It was about the same size as the last one.

A little farther along we got a third milk snake.

This one was a last year's hatch and was in shed, thus the lack of effort on the photo.

Finally, a large rock turned up another rat snake.

This one was in shed. Jeff looks doesn't look quite thrilled with this find as he did with the first ratsnake.

We found one more ratsnake, but I didn't take a pic of that one.

That was it for the day. It was pretty warm out and it is beginning to look like we might be a week late for flipping season in Kansas and Missouri.