I headed home to Akron/Cleveland for a few days and had big aspirations for doing lots of stuff (blandings, shorthead garters, saugas, spotted turtles). Most of these involved driving and I was feeling a little burnt out, so I just poked around near home in the National Park only 5 minutes away. Actually saw quite a few DOR ringnecks, dekays and garters one night during a storm. More snakes than I have evern seen on a road, anywhere in only an hour or two. I got up in the morning after the rain hoping for smooth greens. No dice but I did find my first milk (basking) in the area, although I lost it down its hole.
From there it was down to SE OH, the third corner of the state on this trip. I decided to spend most of my time poking around new counties, and new out of the way corners of counties I have hunted fairly extensively. I saw quite a few DOR kings, which although unfortunate, were very good to see and figure out a bit more about these animals. I have now seen them in almost all the counties they are known to occur, and one DOR was very close to a new county... This has also been a very good year kingwise for me. I have seen more this year than all my other years combined.
Here is some stuff I did see that wasn't gory.
Plenty of box turtles along the road, as well as juvies under tin and rocks.
The coppers are out in force as well.
And quite a few milks have turned up as well. This year has been amazing for milksnakes. Even with the heat in the 90s they have been turning up under boards, in carpet, on rock cuts...
This female painted turtle just finished laying her eggs. Not the greatest habitat, but it is in situ...
It has also been a great year for Virginia. I had not seen one before this April, and have since seen 6 or 7. These are a very welcome find.
One of many redbellies.
And finally, a ratsnake found in the classic barn setting! I always look...
Finally I returned back in Cincinnati to complete the circle of OH. Here are some other randoms from various travels that I can't quite remember off the top of the head.
Which brings us fairly up to speed to last week. The temps got rediculous, so it was time to change tactics a bit. Mike G and I went out to chase some storms and flip tin through the night. I have always wanted to do this in the summer, and remember a post way back when of Phil doing this in KY. Well we hit the first spot around midnight, and sure enough, we found a couple milks under tin. I had no idea snakes would be so warm and active this late though. It was virtually impossible to wrangle any of these animals.
I mentioned chasing a little rain. Well it was pretty dry at our destination, but this guy was still found on the road.
And this one was found in his spring, with many larvae.
The next board site had some nice finds.
We also saw a few DORs that night, but no active snakes. (garters, waters and a rough green - of which i have seen a DOR this year almost every day in the field).
Sun I woke up late after a long day of work yesterday, and headed out to meet up with Dean and Todd for a GCHS survey. I wasn't feeling the most motivated in the world, and got out there late. It was already hotter than hell and we didn't see much.
These Jeffs were still in a pond.
Not too exciting... Well I had a lazy lunch with Dean, and decided after to head to the hills to flip tin as it cooled off and cruise as dusk fell. I hadn't planned on this excursion and had left my good flashlight at home. I stopped at Meijer and grabbed a piece o crap for 10 bucks... hmm stupid...
Things were slow out there. Temps were around 100 and the tin was extremely hot to the touch. Even around 6 pm not much was showing up. I finally decided to check a timber local that I have heard through the grapevine used to get checked frequently back in the day. I didn't see anything and decided to amuse myself with a fence lizard.
Somehow, I managed to come up on this though?!?!?! OH HELLS YA!!!
These first few are in situ.
Another angle.
She moved around a bit then, and I went back for the tripod.
WOW.... I couldn't have been happier. Now exhilirated I hit the road hoping to see stuff moving at dusk. 3 hours of nothing later...
On my "last" pass around 10pm I straddled a nice large and very obvious timber. I had that [bleep]ty ass Meijer flashlight that had become lost in the car, my hook had also dissapeared, I had no idea where my camera was, and I had taken my shoes off because I thought my feet were rotting... what an idiot. I popped out of the car as quickly as possibly under the circumstances (shoeless) and the snake was already off the road. There was about a foot remaining and quickly dissapearing into waist high grass. It was a beaut though... I tried to impede its progress to get some pics and it literally exploded into the tall grass/shrubs and down a little hill. I went to the car and aimed the headlights into the woods, put shoes on, and poked around for it for a while. Furious and fuming, I gave up and started cruising again very quickly. I had been holding a speed of 25-30 on the narrow, windy mountain dirt roads, but I had also thought the snakes would just be hanging out on a nice leisurely stroll. Now knowing this wasn't the case, I had to pic it up and tried to hold it around 35-40mph. A couple extremely quick copperheads later, one of which also got away, yeah I must be pretty worthless, I decided to call it a night because I was running out of fuel and miles away from an open gas station.
I swung by an old known green salamander spot hoping to get lucky. No dice on the greens, but my luck held out...
I spotted this guy in a crack.
And while trying to get pics, I noticed this in my viewfinder. What the hell. .. I mean seriously, does he think hes an alterna??
You can see the first snakes blurry nose in the upper right. The little milk actually made his way into the same crack, and then exploded back out of there. Guess he didn't want to be a 1am snack.
I just let them be alone, and enjoyed the moment, snapping shots with the camera. How stinking cool...
Well since I got your hopes up with greens. Here are some from May that I never got around to posting :wave:
It has been an amazing year... I can't wait to get out again. I have been very lucky as of late and it has been a while since I struck out. All those long days and empty gas tanks without anything to show for them seem to be distant memories. I know this is but a cruel trick being played on me, but I need to get trying to take advantage of it while I can. Karma is going to be a huge, cranky, and very hungry biotch...
Hope it wasn't too long...
Jason
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www.buckeyeherps.com
