6-7-16

Trip Details

Location: Linn County, IA

Weather: 73 degrees, sunny, light winds

Time: 4:30 pm

Herpers: Laura and Jim Scharosch

Account by: Jim Scharosch

Photos by: Laura Scharosch

I was planning on hanging around the house and getting a few things done until Laura texted me late morning and asked if we could go looking for snakes after work. I didn't put up much of a fight.

We went out to a new local prairie spot that is close to home. We walked a while without seeing anything, and then a larger garter snake shot through the grass. As is jetted off at a 1000 miles per hour and with only a quick glance I thought it might be a plains garter, which I haven't seen yet this year. This promted an effort to grab it up. It took a bit of chasing, and it took the snake making a mistake and stopping for a second, but I managed to snag it. It wasn't a plains, just another Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis).

The snake was cranked up though, so it was fun. She reared back and opened her mouth so I played along.

She took a shot at me too, which Laura miraculously caught with the camera.

We got another garter which had a little bit of red on it's sides but otherwise was a carbon copy of the first one. We didn't take any pics of that one.

We moved on to another Linn county spot. The only thing we turned up was an adult Racer (Coluber constrictor)

He bit me a bunch of times on the hand as I held him. He never went full on killer mode like the garter did earlier.

It was fun getting out with Laura for a while.