Chad_ks and I visited central Kansas Saturday--great time and some great herps. Here is Chad's post on the trip, more pics to follow:
I went with KcMatt to some different areas of Kansas spanning the plains in the central region. We left Olathe around 6:00 AM and arrived at our destination somewhere around 8:30-9:00. We hunted the whole day through and finally quit after field hunting at dusk. We left to come home at around 8:45 PM. Here are our totals:
Lined snake- 8
Ringneck snake- 200+/-
Great Plains Rat snake- 3
Speckled Kingsnake- 3
Bullsnake- 3
Central Plains Milksnake- 19...Three of these little critters were found at a few abandoned barn sites in the area, and these sites were pretty far from any type of "common" milksnake habitat. The barns were surrounded on most sides by flat and open grazing land with no rocks or surface cover other then what was provided by the tins from the barn. There were three different pairs found under the same cover.
Racer- 2
Great Plains skink- 50 +/-
Collard lizard- 26
Northern Prairie skink- 2
This is what I can remember off the top of my head. I ran into a some folks from the Kansas Herpetological Society Herpetofaunal count that was taking place two counties over, and it sounds like I missed out on some cool finds. It was a long and interesting day with some surprises. I was disappointed at the lack of a few herps I had hoped to see out there, some of which I have seen there many times including the Massassauga Rattlesnake. We spent approx. 2 hours in search of lowland burrowing snakes and the sandy areas surrounding some of the larger rivers of the area, but were unsuccessful in our attempts.
chad
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