About 15-20 years ago I went camping in North-Central Ohio at a very popular campsite that borders Lake Erie. One particularly memorable part of the trip was a piece of wood about 12 x 18 inches that was a few feet from out tent. The wood was on the edge of cut grass for the tents and a wooded area behind it. Behind the wooded area was a maintenance area.

After being camped out for a few days, just for kicks I decided to flip the board, not expecting much. Imagine my surprise when I found my first Eastern Fox Snake. Later we explored the maintenance area and found another Fox Snake, along with Garter and DeKay's Snakes. Today I thought I'd revisit the spot and see what was up.

I found several Eastern Garter Snakes, though all were in shed and under cover - except this large female. Here's a shot of her "as found" patrolling a pond:


Most of the habitat I explored looked like this, with the Lake Erie shoreline 20 feet to the left, just beyond the row of trees.


There were a a ridiculous number of Water Snakes out, some with very reduced (spotted) patterns. Others were almost black or strongly banded. While walking the shoreline I saw three Water Snakes up in a tree (two males trying to mate with a female). I took this photo of them:


I remember growing up in Cleveland and catching DeKay's Snakes (Northern Brown Snakes) as a kid - they were the only snakes in my neighborhood. I never get tired of seeing them in the wild. Most were rather small, but this was a decent-sized female.


Sometimes when you go herping, you find exactly what you are looking for - and that's pretty cool. Finding this baby Eastern Fox Snake fulfilled my quest.


But the good times didn't end there. Remember the maintenance area I mentioned? Well there weren't any snakes this time around, but I did find this Smallmouth Salamander - my first ever.


It was an excellent day to be out in the field!
Third Eye

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• Cinco de Mayo in North-Central Ohio - tspuckler, Wed May 5 17:39:22 2010