Trip Details

Location: Blackhawk and Buchanan Counties, Iowa

Weather: 64 and sunny

Time: 1:30 pm

Herpers:  Don Becker and Jim Scharosch

Account by: Jim Scharosch

Photos by: Jim Scharosch

Don and I made our yearly trip to an area in Blackhawk County that is always a great spot to see a large number of bullsnakes. Not so much this time. We walked a lot and turned up just this one juvenile Bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi).

This area is also good for Northern Prairie Skinks (Plestiodon septentrionalis), which we did see in large numbers.

On our way back we stopped at an area in Buchanan County that I had noticed a week prior, but didn’t have time to stop. I didn’t expect much, since it was a rocky area almost completely surrounded with agricultural fields. The rock was decent, and we turned up a lot of Common Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis). I’m only including one photo, we probably saw fifteen of them.

I commented that it seemed like we should see juvenile fox snakes here, and a few minutes later Don turned up the first of what ended up being seven juvenile Western Fox Snakes (Pantherophis vulpinus)

There was a creek nearby, so it shouldn’t have surprised us that we found two small Northern Water Snakes (Nerodia sipedon), but I will admit that it surprised me at the time.

It probably isn’t a spot I would visit often, but it is nice when you find a new location and it pays off a bit. I could see turning up a milksnake or two here at some point.