4-11-18

Trip Details

Location: Southeastern Iowa

Weather: 62 degrees, clear sky, breezy

Time: 1:30 p.m. 

Herpers: Dale Maxon, Elizabeth Owens, Don Becker and Jim Scharosch

Account by: Jim Scharosch

Photos by: Jim Scharosch

Today we got to walk around on a property where we hope to find some really cool critters later this year. This has been the weirdest "spring" I can remember. It has been really cold and snowy into April. Last year by this time I had been out and seen a number of snakes, including a timber rattlesnake. This year has been too cold to really even try.

We were at this property primarily to scout for future trips but we ended up finding a number Common Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) out on the crawl. Not much effort was put into photographing these guys.

These last two appeared to be copulating, but it seems awfully early for females to be out.

Hopefully it warms up one of these days and herp season can start up for real!