9-22-18

Trip Details

Location: Jackson County, Iowa

Weather: High of 67 degrees. Sunny with a few light intermittent clouds. Light wind.

Time: 10:30 am

Herpers: Matt Ricklefs, Don Becker and Jim Scharosch

Account by: Matt Ricklefs and Jim Scharosch

Photos by: Jim Scharosch & Matt Ricklefs

Feeling the waning days of summer trying their best to hold on, they finally succumbed to the Autumnal Equinox. The first day of fall. Early enough that the leaves had not quite started to fully lose their green and begin their decent to the ground. The air was still predominantly filled with the smells of summer. In any regard however it was a beautiful day. Everything pointed to favorable conditions for a day of herpin'. BUT, you just never know. Our trek out north and east was a welcome one and allowed us to catch up and even "Merp" (using HerpMapper to record finds) a few DOR's on the way.

We had a couple of locations to go to and we were eager to get going, though we did need to strategically wait for the sun to hit a few spots. The radiant heat of the sun felt warmer than the thermometer suggested, so that was great. We had a few fair weather clods move through from time to time which was also fine. As we walked our first area we were a little surprised that we didn't see some folks out and it wasn't until Don gave a familiar shout that we knew we had our first Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) of the day. This is one that Don found under a rock in our "milk snake area". Usually we see Timbers out and about around here, but, one under wasn't unheard of by any means. It was a nice one at about twenty inches.

Photo by Jim Scharosch

More out of an old school habit, I still always carry tongs with me. The vast majority of the time we can see plenty without any physical interaction. This is one example of where tongs are handy. We gently hooked the snake, placed the rock carefully back the way it was, and then I used my tongs to maneuver it back to where it could crawl back underneath safely. A nice cooperative effort.

Jim and Don had been to these locations about 2 weeks prior and found a few rooking females and some newly born babies so we were interested to see which of the females might still be around as well as juveniles. The next find would be Jim's spot of a small nest of three juvenile Timbers still hanging at the rook.

Photo by Jim Scharosch

This rook in particular gets a fair amount of action and we have seen adults and juveniles moving in and out often during this time of year. A good day already!

Moving on, Don came across a rather massive one on the crawl and as we watched this one, we noticed another one coiled into a shallow crevice not far away.

Photos by Jim Scharosch

This was the same area where a few weeks previous we had found rooking females for the first time. One of the primary reasons we wanted to revisit this area was to see if there was any sign that those females had successfully reproduced. There were no babies right at the rookery, but about ten feet away, on the outcrop directly below the rook, Jim spotted two this year's baby timbers.

Photos by Jim Scharosch

Soon after this, I found a timber all the way down at the base of the hill. It was tucked back into a crevice. It was the furthest down this outcrop that we had found a timber.

Photos by Matt Ricklefs

Soon Don was calling out as only he can. If you have herped with him you know what I am talking about. He had worked his way to the far side of the outcrop and had spotted an enormous timber, and then in peering through the raspberry thorns he had spotted three more really large timbers with the first one. We figured he was exaggerating, but they were massive. They were also in a spot we had not before seen timbers on this outcrop.

Photo by Jim Scharosch

In this clip you can see how far these timbers were buried back in the bushes.

 

It is going to be interesting to see if this rock turns into a hotspot in coming seasons.

We flipped some "milk snake rocks" on the way out, and of course they produced another timber.

Photo by Jim Scharosch

We did get a nice dark colored adult "chocolate" Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum) about twenty-two inches.

Photo by Matt Ricklefs

And soon after that we found a juvenile milk snake.

Photo by Jim Scharosch

It was a nice way to leave this area.

We headed to the southern-most hillside at this location and it started much the same. We found a nice Timber right out in the grass just soaking up some rays.

Photo by Jim Scharosch

It wasn't far from cover and as we looked about, there was another one partially tucked near a rock.

Photo by Jim Scharosch

Both were a good thirty inches or so. However, that would be it for the day...except for a Walking Stick that Don had on him.

Photo by Matt Ricklefs

It was a day of good expectations that did not disappoint. In the end we had 17 total Timbers and 2 Milks.

Observe, Conserve, Maintain and Preserve!

Happy 1st Day of Fall Herpin'!