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First on the block is this handsome sypila from Kansas...

...followed by a mediocre looking male from Bates County, Mo...

Here's a cool shot. This was taken in situ in Wyandotte County, KS this year...

This is a large syspila from Perry Lake, Kansas. It has very thick black as many Perry snakes do...

Here's syspila food in MO...

...next is a youngster from SE KS...

This next snake is a very cool animal IMO. It is in deep shed, but if you look closely you can see how attractive this snake must be. Check out the lack of black on the sides of the snake...that in conjunction with the lentgh of the red saddles must have made for quite an attractive animal post-shed. Unless I recatch it, I'll never know since I released it...

It's not often that I find syspila out on the crawl, but occasionally I'll get a nice surprise. This snake was found out crawling along a rock wall in the middle of a field, in situ (im an insitu shot junkie)...

Just after I took that shot, the snake shot down a hole that it had obviously used many times. I wonder if it wasn't demonstrating a strange behavior for milk, basking in the open...I lifted the nearest cement block and low and behold...

Here's a "Grismer shot" from NW MO...





Here's a nice insitu from under a HUUUGE ROCK...

...and the snake...which was a new personal record for me...the earliest milk I've found at 3/08...

Anyway, I hope you folks enjoyed...

Wow, those are some killer finds! I haven't had much luck finding milks up here in Montana, but it doesn't stop me from looking. Usually, I am in it for the outdoors experience, and an ice cold beer with a cigar. By any chance could you tell me what kind of camera you have? Some of those photos were excellent. I will try and get some pics of my syspila up as soon as I can. They are not nearly as nice as your finds, but they are still pretty nice. Keep the cool pictures comming!
-Ryan

Nice.

I wish I had time to look for those guys...seems like a ton of fun!

-RG

Chad you are the fieldherping syspila finding exepert. Good God you have a lot of field shots of syspila.
I have a lot of respect for someone that keeps themselves out in the field that much. It takes alot of work and commitment to have and earn that many photos. NICE JOB. I always enjoy your post.

Now, so you head will go down in size, I still remember the post a few years ago where you had your shirt on backwards, while herping, and you didn't notice it until you saw a photo of your self on Kingsnake w/ the pocket on your back.
That still makes me laugh when I think about it.

Oh, and I really like the photo of the syspila on the rock ledge.

Peace,

-Dell

Well hell Dell, those were some kind words. Thanks! Yes, I am a syspila and herping junkie...If it's the herping season, I generally spend more time in the field than I do anywhere else. It's great for pics, but it's not very responsible! Oh well...

great stuff man.

Thanks. Let me know if you do end up heading this way with Dell and Cole...

will do,
L8r

Winter is coming up fast. Those great shots in feb will keep us dreaming spring is coming sooner than it is,lol. Nice pics!

I agree, I'm already feeling the itch. It's gonna be a long winter.
-Phil
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I'll Google your YouTube
If you Yahoo! Myspace!

and I haven't seen a wild milk in......decades........LOL........then again I don't go out .......
nice stuff........can't get red on a ball python.......you guys make me want to sell everything so I can go on trips..........
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and those milks are awesome. I really hope that Robert and I can make a trip up your way in the springtime!
Nathan

You two make sure to head this way in late April. That's when you get the high diversity in species. Unfortunately the best time to find a high volume of milks is when little else is out...

Chad are photo 4 and photo 8 the same syspila?
If not, they sure look like they are carrying the same saddle pattern. And the head looks close too.

-Dell

Yep, they sure are. That Perry locale is one that i hunt two or three times a year (once or twice in the spring and once in the fall) and I see the same animals on multiple occasions at times. I also found that same snake on the other side of a well traveled road there...

Hey fellas...

I also wanted to throw in these snakes as well as a cool story...

I'd like to see if anyone can identify the origin of this snake. It's a trick question because it's from Kansas, the land of not-so-attractive syspila. But this critter was a screamer! My buddy Jordon caught it and took this shot, but I had to include it as evidence that KS can produce some killa syspila every once in a blue moon...

So...back in June we were herping a Timber Rattlesnake den here in Kansas...and we found a youngster horridus that needed his yearly picture to be taken. As we were photographing it, we were careful not to interact with the snake more than was absolutely neccisary and it crawled backwards under a rock overhang. My buddy Jordan was taking a shot with his digi cam and flip screen, when he noticed something red that was wedged in the back of the overhang...

Until he looked at that shot on his screen, no one knew that there was a milk there...Pretty neat huh?!

All of the milks that I've been posting are from this year. Over the last 4 years I haven't had a camera, so I've relied on others in our field group to photograph the syspila that we've found...Here are a few of those animals, photos by Jordan Johnson...

Here's proof that syspila can be beautiful ;}...

Here's a vibrant snake with a black headcap...

Jordan found this nice adult snake in eastern KS. like the above snakes...

There's a part of KS that has a certain glaciated habitat. This occurs up in the NE part of the state and some of the milks from that region are spectacular, but this isn't one of them. Wyandotte County...

...and finally here's my friend Jordan with what we like to call a mouse eater...

I realize that winter is long, but I haven't even posted any Scarlet Kings or wierd three way intergrade OK milks yet. Plus I have a lot of good pics to post on other various fieldherping websites when it really calms down. Hell, milks are still active here in KS. I went looking for them today...didn't score, but I didn't check the syspila den that I'll be checking tomorrow...wish me luck folks...

Man those are some screamers.I had one once from Douglas county that had the long even saddles on it.
Very cool indeed and good luck manana mi amigo.

L8r Shannon