4-30-18

Trip Details

Location: Southeastern Iowa and Linn County, Iowa

Weather: Mid 60s in the morning in SE Iowa, 80 in the afternoon in Linn County, sunny

Time: 9:30 am to 1:00 pm

Herpers: Don Becker and Jim Scharosch

Account by: Jim Scharosch

Photos by: Jim Scharosch

We were in southeastern Iowa again in the morning and hadn't seen much of anything. We stopped on a gravel road and Don was sending a text message. I noticed a stick on the road a ways ahead that I didn't recall seeing when we had passed this way earlier. I realized that the stick was now on the other side of the road and sorted out that it was a snake crossing. We jetted up there to find a four foot Bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi) nearly across the road.

I took some terrible photos on the gravel and then we released it. As it crawled off it stopped under a cedar tree and I took a few shots as it sat. They didn't turn out great, but it still looked better than a ball of snake on the road.

We headed up to a tried and true spot in Linn County for my first visit to the site this year. It paid off with another bullsnake.

This one was younger, probably about two and a half feet in length.

A bit later we found an Eastern Hognose Snake (Heterodon platirhinos).

This is as the snake was found. I took a lot of other photos of this snake but this shot was my favorite even with all of the distracting stuff on and around the snakes head. It was a really cool hog for Iowa. Most of the Iowa hogs have a gray background color, this one had a reddish brown coloration. Long time readers of herpjournal know that I used to complain often about a hognose snake jinx I used to have. This is my second of the year and its still April. I'm pretty stoked about that.