Chicago Herpetological Society

[Jason_Hood]

Well I have a touch of posion ivy but that is it, so not only did the trip rock but I have nothing to get over afterwords. That is rare for me. This spring I had both posion ivy and Lyme's disease. On to the good stuff.

Mike D, Eric W, and myself made the 6 hour drive down to Shawnee National Forest this past weekend and met up with a few other society members. We hit a few tin spots on the way in but we didn't find anything. This was my 3rd trip down to the famous "Snake Road" and the other 2 trips were ok at best. I have read for years about 30-70 snake days and more cotton mouths than you can shake a stick at. So nothing at the first few spots was not a good omen.

We made our way to Snake Road and found the other 2 groups. Linda and Jenny, and Gery, Steve, and Ralph. Turns out that flipping unproductive tin we missed a Red Milk feeding on a large rodent that Steve found in the leaf litter. Earlier in the day the group also found a copperhead. A few other snakes were found but these two snakes were on my list of snakes to see.

We tried our luck on Snake Road and after a bit of walking Mike and I found a cotton mouth under a log.



Eric was up on the bluffs looking around and seeing as he takes better pictures we called him down to do his best. Here he is with said log getting his settings right.



That is my problem, I just set up my camera for the day and shoot all my finds with the same settings until it gets really obvious that I need to change them, like the sun sets.

So since Eric was bugging him I took another pic with a different angle.



This is Mike and Eric with the log flipped and the snake leaving. You can see him taking off.



So we followed him to the road and bugged him some more. I think if we knew how many we would end up seeing this poor snake would have had a better night.



The rest of that night we found a few other snakes including ribbons, rough greens, and salimanders. In my usual lack of focus I forgot about the camera strapped to my neck and didn't take any pics.

The next day we spent a bunch of time on the road walking and we found more of the same. We tried some tin but it was unproductive.

Here is a little cutie cotton mouth looking at me all tough like.



Linda walked up and he opened his mouth and flexed his fangs so I thought cool I can get a shot of that. Well when she put her walking stick infront of him he really did so I suggested that we time it right and when I say move the stick she will and I will get a cool shot. Well timing was ... off



Best I got of this one.



The next one was really happy to pose for me. I like this pic.



A little later Mike called me up to a cave in the bluff to see this.



So this got me excited about the bluffs again so I tried my luck for a bit and a little bit later I spotted this green snake heading in for the season.



My perspective pictures never show any real perspective but I was way up on the bluff here and it was amazing.



another cotton.



arghhh



We ended up heading to dinner and on the way we found a black rat on the road that was very pretty but since food was on my mind I didn't get pics. In fact looking at my pictures that I do have, there is a whole day missing.

On the first night we went to Crazy Joe's fish shack and got some catfish and while we were there I had to go to work. Here I am on a little mini vacation and one of our crew goes and locks her keys in her car. So being a locksmith I offer to open it up for her but it is a pain when you don't have any tools. I ended up making a tool out of a fly swatter. It was actually kind of fun and it gave me something to pick on "her" about. Not going to say who it was, just to be nice.

Saturday night we got BB-Q early and them tried to road cruise a bit to no avail. Saturday is what is missing for pics but it was more of the same. Cottons, Ribbons, Rough Greens, and the mystery black snake that I dove for on the top of one of the nicer bluffs. I missed and I am not sure what it was. I thought it was a black rat at first but then I thought maybe a yellow belly. Never saw its head but it was long and thinner than a cotton.

Anyway on to Sunday... Sunday rocked. We started by flipping tin in the a.m. and found a racer (no pic) right away. Next we found a huge shed that had me really excited. Our big goal for the trip for everybody was Timbers. Well here was this tin with a big shed with chevrons on it going under the tin?? We were flipping with another group but they just didn't seem very excited by it. I figured they just didn't think the snake would still be there. Well I did and I was excited so I flip the tin and see that the shed is about 8 feet long and it starts to sinks in slowly. Jungle carpet pythons have chevrons too and one of the guys looking a bit less bored now that I am talking about the huge timber keeps them. It only lasted a minute but those guys got their laughs. Stupid herper jokes.

After that spot we headed to another few spots without much luck until our last tin spot for the day. Here we found 2 sweet intergrade kings. All of the kings I have found down there have been pretty blah but both of these were sweet. One was heavily speckled and black and white while the other was less speckled and black and yellow. Pics??? Not me, I forget about my camera.

After this we headed to snake road for my first real encounter with "Snake Road". I didn't take many pictures as they were mostly cotton mouths but we found a ton of snakes in a short time. Like I said most were cottons but after a dozen or so we hit another goal for the trip Copperhead!!!!. It was a cute little one and we got some pics of this one.





This little one went into a crack and looked like it had no way out but it seemed content. One of our little 3 man crew had walked off earlier and we wanted him to see this little gem so we headed down the road to find him. Plus after 3 days of hiking up and down those bluffs I was beat. So about 45 minutes later we return with our 3rd leading the group with us directing from behind. Right as he gets to the right crack and we are about to tell him to look in with a light a sound and a blur to the side grabs my attention. I saw something fall and heard it hit the leaves right next to me. I look down and see this.



And I sort of think, hmm... something almost fell on that copperhead. Then I realize that it was the copperhead that had just fallen off the bluff!!! So I start taking pics and talking to my group about this freak happening and we start throwing out ways it may have happened...





After a bit of picture taking I get bored right as Mike says "Maybe another snake push it off the cliff" so I look up and see this!!!!!



Right where the first one fell from was another looking down watching us!!! We never bother to check the sex of the one that fell but it was smaller than the one up on the bluff. However it happened it was cool. Raining copperheads!!!!! The original was still there as well. So we walked this road about 15 times with no copperheads and then find 3 in a 5 foot section. At this point it was getting dark and the snakes were everywhere. I walked another 50 yards in the trees on the bluff and saw another 15-20 cottons and after I almost stepped on the 3rd one I figured it was time for the road again. On the way I spotted a green water snake so I brought him with me to the road for pics. On the way he gave me this gift.



Here he is with a smile



nother cutie



So we headed out the car at this point seeing another couple snakes and start cruising. We got a yellow belly water that we grabbed for pics the next day.



And then another goal and highlight.







And less than 2 seconds after letting go of him you can just see a tail



We also saw a Dekay's and a black rat juvi. All in all a great day.

The next day we hit another spot and got another black rat and a calligaster to close out our trip. I had a great time and i will close with some habitat shots







Jason

[Geckofiend]

Awesome. Maybe next spring will be EXPLOSIVE
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aaron@geckofiend.net
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[Jbnkat]

Great story ..........Great pics!!

Thanx for sharing Jason!
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kat

[CrystalJeffries]