On my way down to Florida during spring break, I stopped in southern Indiana and stayed with my friend Jake Seals for a night. The plan was to stop on the way back as well, and to do some herping. Unfortunately, it didn’t work to stop on the way back, but that worked out to our benefit, because I ended up heading down the first weekend in May, and we had an incredible experience, plus some good herping in general.

We started herping on the morning of Saturday, May 1st, and Jake quickly found this southern black racer under tin.

Jake with snake.





Snake, no Jake.



Jake shoots snake.



Jake’s dog, Stuey.





We don’t know what beheaded this midland water snake.



Jake showed me my first red milk...this was the third time he found it under the same rock in 2 weeks!





The rest of the milks we found we red x eastern intergrades, though many of them looked like the easterns I find in SE Wisconsin.













We also found a couple northern ringnecks.









We found 2 gorgeous male eastern box turtles. Jake spotted the second, though it was EXTREMELY hard to see.













We then found a juvenile eastern box on the road...the first juvenile I’ve ever seen in the wild.







We checked out a vernal pond and found a newt...





...and salamander larvae we assumed to be spotted sals from all the hatched egg masses in the water.



We found two-lined sals...





...and later in the evening, bullfrogs, Fowlers toads, and cricket frogs.







At that point heavy rain began, and we headed north in hopes of seeing a somewhat rare occurrence. When we got to the area, we began stopping to ID the various anurans on the road. Upon checking the third animal we saw, Jake returned to the car saying, “You’re not gonna believe this...” -- it was a SPADEFOOT TOAD! The heavy rains brought them out to breed, and for the next 3 hours we listened to them chorus, photographed them, and rejoiced!







No video, but listen to this audio!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVSIZjlUcss

We hit the hay at 4:30AM, exhausted but exhilarated. What an incredible experience!
-----
Carl

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