Herps from the field, on the web
by Matt Ricklefs and Jim Scharosch
Herpjournal is our effort to share photos and accounts of our trips afield looking for herps. We live in Iowa, but make an effort to get out a few times a year for trips to other states. Our focus is on snakes, but we document any herps we find. We get great enjoyment from days afield with friends and from sharing with others on the internet.
Click on a rock to go that year and see a list of field days we posted.
This site is an ongoing effort, and we try to update the site with new trips as quickly as possible.
We have an ongoing habitat restoration project in NE Iowa.
You can visit that page here: Herpjournal Habitat Restoration Project
Drop either of us an email if you want. We would love to visit with you.
If you want to know more about either of us, here is a short bio for Matt Ricklefs and Jim Scharosch
Past Years:
A quick note from the herpjournal guys...
Over the years we have been doing Herpjournal we have learned a lot from observing animals in the field. We have also learned a lot from the people we have had the privilege to spend time with. Our focus has shifted over the years as well. We started out just wanting to see animals and get something online, now photography and learning more about the animals we find has become primary.
We continue to see an evolution of our herping "ethics", especially in regards to Timber Rattlesnakes. If you look at the earliest Herpjournal pages in which we encounter Timbers, you will see photos of us handling the snakes. We used to handle nearly every Timber we found. The things we have learned over the years caused us to re-examine that practice. Now we rarely disturb Timbers, preferring an in situ photo to a manipulated photo.
So when you see photos of us handling Timber Rattlesnakes on Herpjournal, realize that that is a thing of the past.
If you want to read more about herping ethics, see Matt's piece here.
And speaking of ethics, here is a public service message brought to you by Mike Pingleton, Jeff LeClere and us here at Herpjournal.
A new field guide to the herps of Iowa!
Our good friend Jeff LeClere has finally finished his book, "A Field Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of Iowa". We have been waiting a long time for this book and it is finally ready to order. The book is very well written and has color photos of all of the herps of Iowa. It includes county dot maps for all species. I highly recommend this book for both herpers and anyone who has an interest in the natural world.