5-3-16

Trip Details

Location: Benton County, Iowa

Weather: 64 degrees, mostly cloudy

Time: 7:00 p.m.

Herpers: Jim Scharosch

I went for a super quick stop to a local den site. In an effort to get home quickly, I told myself I would only pick 10 rocks to check and not climb all over the hillside. Also, since I only had my phone and not my real camera, I would only take in situ photos, no posing critters for better shots.

It started slowly, but the fifth rock had a quadruple. There were two Milk Snakes (Lampropeltis triangulum) and two young Fox Snakes (Pantherophis vulpinis).

Only one of the milk snakes is in the shot because I didn't have my phone out and ready at the time and they were already on the move by the time I got the shot taken. That is also why it is so out of focus. Of course the one I missed was really bright red and was much nicer than the rest I saw...

I kept my phone out and ready, and rock number eight turned up another milk snake.

The tenth rock of the night held a fourth milk snake. Looking at the pics now this snakes appears to have an eye cap stuck from a previous shed. I wish I would have noticed it at the time.

I probably could have found a little more had I stayed and worked the rest of the area, but I did cherry-pick the best ten rocks so it wouldn't have that much. It was kinda fun to do a twelve minute herp trip.