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Having a long time interest in seeing bull snakes in the field, finally last year I decided to visit there with friend that had been there before. I was not disappointed. I would have been happy seeing one bull, but instead we found 14 live ones and several DOR's over two days in the field. This is a habitat shot of where the agricultural fields met the oak and thorn scrub.

At this site we found several adult bull snakes under the charred remains of a trailer.

The first bull discovered on our trip was this juvenile.

This bull snake was found under a solitary sheet of tin that was lying in a field of scrub and grasses.

Another bull snake that was found.

I spent a whole day there with three other guys and besides the DOR all we found was a shed skin. No other snakes of any kind. I believe we flipped every piece of trash in two counties. The people I was with have had good luck there before. I plan on heading back in the spring. Thanks for the pictures.
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Martin Whalin
My Email

Quotes from guys named Carl:

"Science stops at the frontier of logic. Nature does not, she thrives on ground as yet untrodden by theory."
-Carl Jung

"It is foolish to let singleness of purpose deprive one of the joy and delectation of the many wonderful sights and sounds incidental to the quest."
-Carl Kauffeld

Martin, we visited the area in May. Along with the bull snakes we also found blue racers, eastern milks, eastern hognose, western slender glass lizards, prairie racerunners and a fowlers toad. I had the distinct impression that we hit it just right. This is a pic taken at a junk yard. The man was all too happy to allow us to herp, but somehow he thought we planned on taking the snakes with us. It seemed the locals were deathly afraid of snakes and wanted nothing to do with them. Fortunately it was a big junk yard and we were able to release the snakes while he was on the back side.

>>Martin, we visited the area in May. Along with the bull snakes we also found blue racers, eastern milks, eastern hognose, western slender glass lizards, prairie racerunners and a fowlers toad. I had the distinct impression that we hit it just right. This is a pic taken at a junk yard. The man was all too happy to allow us to herp, but somehow he thought we planned on taking the snakes with us. It seemed the locals were deathly afraid of snakes and wanted nothing to do with them. Fortunately it was a big junk yard and we were able to release the snakes while he was on the back side."

Sounds like the same list my friends usually get up there. All I found where the racerunners and a toad. That also sounds like the same attitude usually found there. As one person apparently told my friends once, "Take 'em all boys!" Great pics.
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Martin Whalin
My Email

Quotes from guys named Carl:

"Science stops at the frontier of logic. Nature does not, she thrives on ground as yet untrodden by theory."
-Carl Jung

"It is foolish to let singleness of purpose deprive one of the joy and delectation of the many wonderful sights and sounds incidental to the quest."
-Carl Kauffeld

i have an 02 kankakee bull from bart bruno that is jet black throughout, no brown in the middle at all. did you ever see any like that up there? thanks again, i really enjoy all your locality shots! and good luck finding a kentucky n. pine this year! .......

Thanks Dan. I did not see any that had black blotches in the mid section, but I did see enough variability to think that probably shows up now and again. The variability is one thing that actually surprised me. I had somehow thought there would be a standard look for the bulls up there but this was not the case at all. All snakes that we saw had black anterior blotches as well as black posterior blotching. Aside from this constant though we found snakes that had different shades of brown in the middle from chestnut brown to red brown. The size and clarity of the latteral blotching varied greatly also. The head patterns ranged from khaki with almost no markings to snakes that had virtually black heads with only small amounts of lighter coloration present. The ventral patterns ranged from heavilly marked to almost immaculate, especially in the anterior section on a few snakes. Also the background coloration was quite variable ranging from straw yellow to mustard yellow with some specimens being tannish. It was quite a learning experience for sure!

what general area are you talking about if you don't mind, this is something i've wanted to do.

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1.0 white sided bull
1.0 hypo bull
0.1 stillwater. Ok hypo
0.1 stillwater. Ok hypo 25% red
1.0 axathic (thanks jcherry)

So glad to oblige Phil! Always enjoyed herpin' with you my friend.
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Alone is an unfortunate predicament...LONE is an aesthetic choice.