Reptile & Amphibian Forums

emorys ? That person lived in southwest Mo. I believed. Unless they want to document a emory rat snake finding in this state, you gotta go to the Flint Hills of Kansas. On Sunday besides observing 7 other species of snakes, we observed 23 emorys.
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

That would be me. Where are the flint hills located? Did you remember to take pics of your trip?
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Ball Python "Wilson" (Castaway)
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Onyx"

I don't take pics anymore unless
#1...they are very unusual in color or pattern
#2...to me everything I see is common for the area

I'm not saying a newbie with me wouldn't take a photograph though.

I live just south of the Wabaunsee county line and about 20 or so miles of the Flint Hills proper north of Emporia and west of Topeka. Mainly we make Alma ( look at map ) our starting point for all directions on observing herps in field.

I WOULD suggest anyone considering looking/herping Kansas to have their non-resident hunting license to be legal though. While I keep no reptiles at this time, with your non-resident license you can legally collect up to 5 animals per species not on a list or any kind of protection. In fact if I go with a non-resident, I demand that they have it with them so we all are safe and legal.
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

Your only 250 miles away It would be faster for you to just ship me one maybe one of these days I will make the trip up there and we can arrange a trip.
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Ball Python "Wilson" (Castaway)
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Onyx"

I have access to a private ranch on Bloody Creek for herping in the Flint Hills near Cottonwood Falls. It is two square miles of virgin herping Sisturus, Collard Lizards, Milk Snakes you name it not to mention it is God's country out there.
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

48 counties out of some 108 counties is listed with sistrurus in Kansas. And that is only the distribution range part. Let's throw in some outside distribution area county wise of hypothetical findings, and you got tons of " square miles " of virgin sistrurus land.
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

I was refering to the Ranch. The reptiles on the two square miles are un molested.
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

when i drive up on 99 highway when it forks to highway 4 going northeast to meet up with 177, seeing those huge hills to the west, i wonder " man, would it be worth walking that half mile to work that hill for herps........." virgin area that no one has probably attempted to look-see.
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

If you exit off hwy 35 at "cattle pens" it is open range out there. Not my honey hole but the ranchers are nice and will usualy let you poke around. You can drive forever back in there but remember it is all private property. I have never been turned down when I told them what I was up to. It is one of the nicest drives in all of the flint hills and a nice place to hike.
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

.
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

Sighthunter

Maybe you have, but you need to get away from that portion of the flint hills and go north. Why, because that area is considered more of the great plains and is a lot more devoided of rocks than other places. Not saying you can't find herps there but in the what I call the " Flint Hills Proper " , unless we get to hot to fast, a measly little hike of 2 hours , one should observe anywhere from 50 to a hundred reptiles depending if one counts ring necks or not then the numbers could climb even more ! The other day I recounted a several hour hunt that did not involve drive time on one of the forums here. Here is one note of findings last year at this very time and hunting private land with no problem of getting permission from land owners : remember, i do not keep anything i find any longer :

Drive time to and from and while out > 2 hours. So I figured 4 hours of actual hunting with 2 other herpers :

67 collareds
58 GP skinks
23 milk snakes
21 yellow belly racers with half being juveniles
19 emoryi
16 speckled kings
11 assorted earth snakes including garters
2 bull snakes
no mass
we lost count at over 200 somewhat ring necks
a few other skink species a few amps like narrow mouth frogs

This is in order of numbers observed.
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......

Yes, north is nice. one of my favorite spots that I am willing to share is Deep Creek road near Manhatten Ks. If you drive 1/2 mile into "Cattle Pens" there is endless rock outcroppings. I have found quite a few collard lizards in there.

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"Life without risk is to merely exist."

I looked up the geology of the flint hills.... It's a giant pasture!
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Ball Python "Wilson" (Castaway)
1. Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Chunk" (Goonies)
.1 Orange Albino Black Ratsnake "Peaches"
0.0.1 Mexican Black Kingsnake "Onyx"

want to herp my area and be guaranteed a emory, get your non-resident license ( you may have to show a hunters safety course of your state in order to obtain a Kansas permit ) and head out here on some very early Sunday morning before June. 255 miles to here will take you about 4 hours or so. My wife at the Wal Mart super store in Springfield does it every 3 to 4 weeks.
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I may be old , cantankerous, crabby, and cynical, but......