7-1-18

Trip Details

Location: Buchanan County, Iowa

Weather: 78, windy and mostly cloudy

Time: 1:00 pm

Herpers: Laura and Jim Scharosch

Account by: Jim Scharosch

Photos by: Jim Scharosch

Thanks to Josh Otten, the last few years Laura and I have had the opportunity to visit a site where smooth green snakes nest. With Josh being out of the area now, he told us it would be nice if we would stop by and see how the snakes are doing and count how many eggs we found. This is always an early July trip so it was time to go!

We only found one Smooth Green Snake (Opheodrys vernalis) which was a bit unusual.

We did see quite a few eggs though, so we know the snakes are still common here.

We also found a Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi) near a couple clutches of green snake eggs. It was one of about 12 found. We also found a single garter snake, which was a strangely low number for this site.

Here are close ups of those same clutches

All told we found 68 eggs across four different nesting areas. Laura also showed the knack she seems to have for spotting Gray Treefrogs (Hyla versicolor).

She always seems to see them even when they are tiny and hiding in the foliage.

It was a fun trip that is always a welcome mid-summer addition to our herping season.