Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone, my long trip southeast into the states is getting closer and I just wanted to get some opinions on herping the area. The wife will be preoccupied with old friends and her family, while I'm making the trip for the reptiles. They are very limited in the Edmonton area.

I'll be predominatly in the northern half of the state, but will be swinging south to the Madison area, and then a small loop into Illinois and to Millwaukee to take in as many zoos/herp collections as possible.

I'd like to do some feild herping, with perhaps an overnight camp or two. Does anyone have any tips or pointers? The wildlife and habitat is quite different from the northern prairie/ boreal forest habitat around home. Are bears, wolves much of a problem? Law enforcement? (I'll just be taking home pic's and memories) Where are some good places to check out (Parks, or general places like rocky outcroppings, rivers, damns, ponds ect)

My target species include Timbers (obviously ), any snake or lizard, snapping turtles, ... okay pretty much any herp! I did a search and there is like 50 different snakes and about 90 reptile and amphibian species altogether. Even if I can witness 10-20% of that I'd be esctatic!

Okay now, to restrain my enthusiasm and shorten this post, my final question is if anyone wants to get together in early June for a feild trip !

Thanks, I'm incredibly excited!

http://www.prairiepages.com/prairie/Whiteside_Prairie.html

This is one place I definately recommend. it is called Thomson-Fulton sand prarie, located in Northwest Illinois. This is basically a chunk of land next to the Mississippi River. It is very sandy (hence the name) and has a bike trail adjacent which is a great trail to hike to spot herps. Racers, eastern hognose, western hognose, fox snakes, bull snakes, race-runners, and ornate box turtles live here. You can also see huge fields of prickly pear cactus, which may be starting to bloom by then, and a great variety of rare plants and birds. There are many great areas along the Mississippi river up in Wisconsin, just do a search.