Notes About Nature

15 Arpil 2013

The weekend we went to Oklahoma was originally planned for a trip to Snake Road in southern Illinois, but the weather didn't cooperate. The weekend after that we had some plans which put our trip off until 12-14 April. Andy joined Jenna and I and we set out Friday after work. We stopped for gas and a snack about 20 minutes after 7 and finally arrived at our campground just before 9p.m. We started a fire so Jenna could start cooking supper while Andy and I set up the tents. Supper was delicious and consisted of potatoes, carrots, grilled Caribbean chicken, and s'mores. The birds woke me about 5:30a.m. on Saturday morning, but it was hard to get out of the sleeping bag. I finally crawled out of the temt about 6a.m. into the frosty morning air. The temps were in the upper 20's to low 30's. The highs for the day would be mid to upper 60's. After potatoes and eggs, we finally hit the road about 8:30a.m. Since it was still too cold for things to be moving, we resorted to flipping logs and rocks. From our previous experience we expected to find quite a few Eastern Zig-Zag Salamanders and not much else. This was not the case.

Not too far into the road I flipped a stump and was surprised to find this:

Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum)

We did find a few Eastern Zigzag Salamanders, but only a few.

Eastern Zigzag Salamander (Plethodon dorsalis dorsalis)

We walked the road three times that day. The only snakes we actually had on the road were a couple Western Cottonmouths, a Western Ribbon Snake, and a few frogs. The largest Cottonmouth was crossing the road a ways in front of us. At first we thought it was a stick. I thought the stick was getting farther to the side of the road, but convinced myself it was just my eyes since it was still a couple hundred yards off. Then Andy said he thought the same thing. I sprinted to see what it was before it got off the road.

Western Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma)

As we left, a college group was approaching. We waited to see their reaction. We waited and waited and they got closer and closer. Andy was just getting ready to say something when they finally saw it. They were less than 15 feet away from a three foot long snake. But the reaction from the guy who saw it first was fantastic. Here are some more pictures from the first day.

Western Wormsnake (Carphophis vermis)

Western Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma)

Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans)

Western Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma)

Mississippi Ring-necked Snake (Diadophis punctatus stictogenys)

Long-tailed Salamander (Eurycea longicauda longicauda)


Millipede and my finger

Western Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma)

Swamp at Night

Andy at Camp

Jenna at Camp

Day two we woke up, ate a quick breakfast, packed up camp, and headed to Snake Road. It was supposed to be in the 80's so we were expecting some movement. Not! We met a guy on the road who said the previous weekend was fantastic. That's the second time in as many tries that we were a week late. We flipped for a while and found a few things. About 11:00a.m., we hadn't found much and decided to head home. We ended the weekend with 21 herp species, 76 bird species and seven mammal species. Here are some pictures of the few things we found on Sunday morning.