Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I headed down to Southern Illinois with my nephew, and three friends to hopefully see some snakes starting their Spring migration. What a trip! We left Decatur at 6:00 am to make the 4 hour drive. I got down there, to find out that 10:00 am was a bit on the early side. The bluffs were not even going to be in the sun until 1 or 2...oh well.

We flipped some rocks near the bluffs, an quickly found an evil young eastern garter, and a tiny ring neck snake. A few small salamanders were also flipped in this area, but I couldn't find the motivation to climb the bluff to take a look, and my herping buddies couldn't find the energy to walk it down to be photoed...I was more interested in walking the road in search of some sunshine.

First snake we found worthy of some photographs was this young cotton mouth...he must just crawling along the bluff.

Next snake was a small ribbon snake. We found at least six of these snakes...most were 5-7 inches long...this was only about 24."

The large black rat-snake was very interesting. The snake had some nice red spots running dorsally down the snake. I've never seen one like it. I tried to get a decent shot of the snake, but nothing showed the colors that well...oh well' I'll settle for a head shot.

This copperhead was the highlight of our trip. I had to keep convincing my friend that collecting is not allowed in the forest...or keeping hot snakes in Illinois

This snake was extremely aggressive for a copperhead. We took some in situ shots, then carried it down the side of the bluff to show to our friend and her son. Word of advice...don't stand behind someone that is hellbent set on keeping a snake from slipping away into a crevice. I nearly wore this copperhead for a belt, when he quickly hooked it and pulled it back from the crack...more of a flip toward me...the snake landed on my feet...maybe it got so cranky from smelling 12 miles of hiking in the mid 70 temps.

We finally started finding more cotton mouths toward the end of our day... I think we found 5 or 6 in the last hour or so...All were sub adult snakes emerging from their hibernaculum, and all needing a good meal.

I hope you enjoy the pictures...I'm happy with them. I just don't get to go out and practice too much. I wish you all a Happy Easter!!!

PS...to my surprise, only 3 salamanders were found. I was not near them, and didn't heads back up the bluff to photograph them. Sorry

John Eddington

Nice pictures. I'm just curious when you found these snakes were they on the road or did you have to flip for them or search some of the crevices? Those pictures really make me wanna go back. In the snake department I only saw 3 ribbons when i was there in march. Once again nice pics of some beautiful snakes.

Were both found near some crevices alongside the bluff. A friend that I was with walked the bluff pretty heavily, and I stayed closer to the road. I think they are some snakes that made the move during last weeks nice weather, as we observed one cottonmouth in the water, and a couple more several feet away from the bluff.

The black ratsnake, and a couple watersnakes were also closer to the swamp. I think activity is about to really heat up down there!

John E.

I am getting ready to head down to southern Illinois for some herping. About 20 of us are going and staying at a hunting lodge down there for the weekend! Last year we had over 40 herp species! Fingers crossed for this year.
I will let you know what sort of species list we get.