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A little more Kansas & herpers.

terryd May 07, 2012 11:46 AM

I'll add a few more photos and comments from our trip to Kansas.

Jeff Hardwick flew in to Billings from Minnesota to make the long drive down to Greenwood Co. Kansas with Cole and I, it was nice to have the third driver for the long trip, and to have another milk-head along that could speak in a milk dialect. Other wise
Cole and I bore everyone to death.

After 16 or more hours of driving this was our view from the hunting cabin we were staying in in south eastern Kansas, and the southern end of the Flinthills.

Our first day we hunted around the cabin we were staying in. We didn't turn up any milks that day but Cole and I did get to see our first Black Rat snake Scotophis obsoletus, and a fine specimen too I might add.

We found a few other animals too. Cricket frog Acris blanchardi, Narrowmouth toad Gastrophryne coralinensis, and a poopy Water-snake Nerodia erythrogaster.

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The three of us, Cole, Jeff, and myself, were pretty ragged out by the drive down so we headed back to the cabin for a few drinks and to wait for Mr. Niles. Dave showed up just before dark when the drinking started up. Perfect timing Dave.
Once Dave showed up the game was really on, and we went into milk hunting over load.
Cole had called John Fraser and this turn of events really made for a great trip. John is an old school Grayband guru, and hard core milk-head. Dave & Johns enthusiasm was infectious.
Like Dave said in his post, John took us to a board he had seen a Speckled King-snake under the day before, and here's Dave with it in hand.

Truly a great looking animal. L. getula

We hit a road cut that Dave showed us in his earlier post, and things really started to happen.
Another getula.

A couple of Prairie Kings L. calligaster.

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But this is a milk-snake forum so lets get to the nuts and bolts of the trip.
Dave Niles with his first wild flipped syspila.

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There are to many milks to talk about each one, so I'll post a series of them which were caught over a few days. I've got to give John Fraser a shout out for keeping us in milk habitat, with out his knowledge, and game attitude we would have been hard pressed to find even one. THANKS JOHN!
Lampropeltis triangulum syspila. Enjoy.

I love the red head on this milk.☟

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Oh wait there's one more.

What the heck, how did that get in here? That's not a milk.

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We also got a tour of Johns snake den of history.
Matt I. John F. Jeff H. with a much coveted L. t. stuarti.

Matt Ingrassi & our man John.

Well, thats a quick over view of the trip in Kansas. When Jeff, Cole and I left Kansas to go back to Billings we stopped in Thomas County Nebraska to hunt for Pale milk snakes for a short 45 minutes, and as luck would have it I turned up a great looking Pale! LUCKY.
L. t. multistrata

-Dell

Replies (16)

DMong May 07, 2012 12:01 PM

Some absolutely STUNNING and extremely healthy looking specimen's you guy's flipped during that trip, Dell!!. A few look to be gravid as well. Either that, or you just fed them a hotdog..LOL!

Love these posts man, and the photography is really top-notch too bro.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com


"some are just born to troll and roll"

terryd May 07, 2012 10:20 PM

Thanks a lot Doug, we gotta get you on one of these trips.
-Dell
Image

DMong May 08, 2012 02:25 AM

Yeah, that would be a great time for sure!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

* "This hooby has the worst types of people I ever met"
* "What is it about the snakes that attracts these idiots?"
* "Everyone thinks they are a know it all"
....Rainer (Bluerosy)


"some are just born to troll and roll"

RG May 07, 2012 01:21 PM

...who the photographer is in the bunch!

GREAT FREAKIN SHOTS DELL!

How in the hell did you line up the head/neck band and the body band like that? VERY COOL!

And what is this...some sort of freaky flat head?

I had to look this up...I've never heard of a Western Worm Snake before...AWESOME!

-Rusty

terryd May 07, 2012 10:24 PM

Thanks Rusty, I'd like to say I planned that syspila shot. Let's just say serendipity is a wonderful thing.
-Dell
Image

Joe_M May 07, 2012 08:20 PM

Great stuff guys!

A few years back a Kansas herper was out my way and I showed him some of the herps up here in the Northeast. I heard numerous stories that day that made me immediately put Kansas on the list of places I need to get to to do some field herping. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get out that way yet, but thanks Dell, John, and Dave for reminding me how much I need to make it happen.

Did you have any of those 100 ringneck flips I've heard so much about, lol?

Those prairie kings appear to greatly resemble L.t.t.
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Joe

terryd May 07, 2012 10:30 PM

Glad you liked the Kansas trip Joe, we saw plenty of Ringers but I didn't even get one photo of them. Spoiled already.
I did get a few photos from our last trip.
-Dell
Image

John Fraser May 07, 2012 08:26 PM

Dell, Thanks again for the kind words, it was a real pleasure to meet all you "milkheads", as well as Cody, he was a generous & great host for you all. I look forward to seeing all of you in the future & of course snake hunting again.....later, John

terryd May 07, 2012 10:33 PM

Thanks John, the pleasure was all ours. That was a great trip, I loved it.
-Dell
Image

joecop May 07, 2012 10:42 PM

Super nice shots Dell. Looks like you guys had a blast. Maybe next year we can all get our timing together, I can grab my best herping suit, and we can meet up for some flipping. I love the pale and I am partial to those KS speckleds. I like them better then other locales.

Joe

joecop May 07, 2012 10:43 PM

Dell, one more thing. The GB I posted over on the king forum is the female from the pair I got from you. She is WAY gravid and getting huge. Eats like a pig!!

Joe

dniles May 08, 2012 06:40 AM

Dell,

Great post. Your photography is outstanding!! You didn't really need to "forget" to get Jeff and Cole's cameras from the car when you went back for yours just so you could take better pictures than them. Your work speaks for itself.

Thanks again to you, Cole and Jeff for letting me hang out for a couple of days. It was a great time - am already looking forward to next year!

Dave
DNS Reptiles - Milk Snakes

dniles May 08, 2012 06:43 AM

sweet pale you guys found on the way home! that is an awesome way to end a trip like that!

Dave

LamproPolice May 08, 2012 01:01 PM

Nice post! And those photos are looking really sharp, Dell. It would have been a great post if spelled my name correctly.

terryd May 08, 2012 03:21 PM

Lampropolice wrote:
" It would have been a great post if spelled my name correctly."
You'll live.

Image

SunHerp May 10, 2012 10:40 AM

turned out GREAT, man! I need to get mine loaded onto the computer, organized, and posted. Hopefully I can make it happen in the next few days.

I'm with you about a hundred and ten percent on the level of awesome we experienced on this trip with regard to both the herping and the people. Great stuff.

Here's a shot of you with that smoking pale:
Image
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-Cole

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