Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know it may be a little early but does anyone know a good spot to see snakes around NW Indiana and Eastern Illinois? I go to school in Indiana and all i can find around here is frogs and toads. I'm not sure if I'm not very good or i just don't know where to look. I'm from Chicago so I didn't really grow up around this stuff. Unlike a lot of you I couldn't go into my backyard and just find a Herp. I have maybe a year of experience hunting herps. In my area i have seen countless frogs, toad, turtles and even mating snapping turtles but i have only seen 2 snakes. Please if you could tell me a good spot to see snakes i would be very gracious.

Warmouse;

I also live in Chicago and have so my whole life. The herp fauna is very limited, unfortunately, but with some good search procedures, and time, you should be able to find some cool snakes. During my searches, I always come across toads and frogs also. For most snakes, wait until later spring or early summer. To me it seems the snakes don't become obvious until early june or so. Search in woods that have not been rummaged through by hikers or party-goers. Search through open fields or edges of woods, that's where I tend to find the garters and brown snakes. i once found an Eastern milksnake a little east of Chicago (in Palatine) under a rotting log in July, and all summer long you should be able to find Northern water snakes, ribbon snakes, and maybe even a queen snake near or in water. It just takes a lot of time. There are a lot of collectors that unfortunately take all they can find and sell to local pet shops (that's where you find garters for 5 or 10 dollars).

If you had any other questions, let me know.

Joe
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2.2 Solomen Island ground boas
0.1 Solomen Island tree boa
1.0 green tree python
1.0 jungle carpet python
1.0 coastal carpet python
1.0 yellow anaconda
1.0 Boa constrictor imperator
0.1 Borneo short-tailed (blood) python

Thanks a lot. I thought I was a little early. I was getting kind of frustrated because all I could find around me was green frogs, western chorus frogs, spring peepers, and american toads. I like finding these guys but I really would like to see some snakes and I couldn't really find a source that gave a good timeline of when I would most likely start seeing them. Thanks again.