June 5

Spending some time in NJ and the first day was a great one! Immediately the morning was successful with a flipped juvenile racer which was confirmation that it wasn’t too hot yet. At the next cover we flipped a massive Coastal Plains Milksnake.

It had some great yellow bands which didn’t come out too well on camera. It was refreshing to see this, especially so early in the day with it being the target of the day. This is another example of me being unaware of the difficulties with finding snakes in specific regions. In this particular county milksnakes are incredibly uncommon yet that was my second flip on the first day I was there.

While that was found in the morning, we spent the rest of the day flipping while the weather permitted it. Not much was found aside from some Red Bellied Snakes or as my company called them, milksnake food.

As we drove around we also came across a few racers. Surprisingly two of them were flipped. One large one was remarked to be a milksnake eater.

After the heat of the day we cruised as the sun descended. Saw only a couple of northern watersnakes.

June 10

As situations change in my life, my opportunities to look for stuff has really been on the rise recently. This trend will only increase and I will be updating this more and more frequently.

I am spending some time in the NorthEast and have been looking to knock some lifers off my list. This started with a focus on copperheads which I had surprisingly not yet seen. It didn’t take too long to find some hidden away up some cracks back in a shelf. Unfortunately couldn’t get a photo of them. On the way back down I flipped the next one, a northern ring-neck. Not quite as special but always fun to add to the list.

The next spot yielded some northern watersnakes (apparently also a lifer) and eastern garters but no pictures were taken. Then we hiked up a mountain where we came across some special occurances. First, a beautiful spotted turtle far away from any known water sources. Rare in this region, I was surprised to see it nesting when hiking past it on the way out.

Before turning around, we came across a real shocker. Racers are rare in this region but that wasn’t the only surprise. It is rather unfortunate timing that the racer was laying eggs when we flipped it. It was returned to its cover with all eggs still intact.

June 11

I had high hopes for today and while they didn’t quite pan out we saw a lot of great stuff. The day started with a search for smooth greens which was unsuccessful but turned up many garters and red bellied snakes. There are lots of pretty red bellied snakes in the area with cinnamon phases, dark phases, and a cool hybrid with a brown stripe down the back. A switch to another green snake location was also unsuccessful but added some more northern ring-necks to the daily tallies. The height of the day came around noon when our focus turned to hognoses. We were greeted early on in our hike by a beauty.

Really unfortunate it was in shed. Once we poured some water on it and cleaned up the poop it smeared across its body we saw the vibrant red in the hood and the orange that went down its body.

After the excitement wore off, we continued along our way. Flipping here and there and much to my suprise found a wood turtle and a basking racer. On the way back we experienced pockets of showers which left us quite dejected but that wasn’t for long. This in-situ hog brightened our spirits up quite quickly.

It is amazing watching these snakes and trying to avoid their instinct to play dead. Really detracts from our ability to take photos. This one was still quick to hood up and gape it’s mouth at us.

Unfortunately this is the best shot I got of it without it’s hood up. Not great but the head isn’t nearly as flat as the other photos.

Cool shot of the colors on the hood. These guys puff up by sucking in air while making a funny hissing noise. They also tend to slither while presenting their hood at what they perceive to be a threat in an attempt to appear larger.

Finally, the money shot. Coiled up nice and pretty.

June 12

The start of a herping trip is always fun, so much potential! Hot barren landscapes, flipping trash and cement until your back breaks, and ticks out the wazoo. Exciting! For real though, I am exploring what the Pine Barrens have to offer with my main target being a Pine Snake. That being said I will be excited to spend some time outdoors, meet some herpers, and see what we can cross paths with.

It was a great start to the day when we flipped through the first few piles while the morning was still cool. This milk was the second snake of the day after a red belly was found in some stuff next to it. This individual was quite pretty and has a cool flame stripe extending backwards from its eye.

We continued to flip throughout the morning until the cool morning came to an end and the days heat was upon us. The only other snake seen was another red belly seen shortly after the milk flip.

A transition to hiking came which brought us to some knee high dry grass and piles of rock strewn throughout a field. Flipping through the top layer revealed an inshed eastern king.

It refused to show its head. Regardless it was still a very pretty individual. The last one I had seen was two years prior so I was glad to finally see another one. Eastern kings tend to be much thicker than their west coast counter parts. The bands are thinner and less white while the species as a whole is much rarer.

The rest of the day was pretty slow and we took a shot in the dark deciding to scout out some habitat in a new area. On a whim we looked at a tarp that was up against some rocks and to our suprise found another king!

This one looked like it was coming off a recent shed and was remarkably gorgeous.

It had a irradecent shine and a white little mustache.

Showing off the thin white bands as they coincidentally aligned.

June 13

The second day in the Barrens began slowly. The flips were not as productive so we transitioned to a different area and casually hiked while working a spread out flip route. This required us to walk along some water were a handful of northern watersnakes were basking. The only herp found along the flip route was a northern red salamander. Second one I’ve seen but the first I’ve been able to photograph!

The real highlight of the day was that we ran into a well known old time herper along the route, Pete Mooney, whom we had a nice, long conversation with.

In the middle of the day we decided to purely hike which yielded some timber rattlesnakes!

We saw a total of four timbers with each of them basking on this warm, windy, and overcast day. The middle two who I did not get to photograph were actually basking on top of each other. I presume to use each others heat.

Finished off the day with another red belly that was not photographed.

June 14

This day was supposed to be incredibly wet as there was supposed to be rain the previous night with dispersed showers throughout the day. Neither of those things happened so we went into the day a little disappointed as the goal was going to be flipping for coastals. We still got lucky as the first flip of the day was indeed a coastal!

It was very difficult to pose and was evasive which delivered this very cute photo opportunity.

This was a really neat one with an incredibly high band count.

This was unfortunately the highlight for the day. The rest of the day we flipped yielding a racer, black ratsnake, red bellies, and ring neck snakes.

June 15

Time for some time in one of the most obvious places to herp in america, the Everglades!

Spent some time cruising with a storm emminent and lightning on the horizon. It began raining before any snakes were seen. The first two were florida brownsnakes with the second one being the thinnest snake I’ve ever seen. Third snake of the night was a ribbon snake. Fourth was a very cool juvenile florida cottonmouth, my lifer! I really should have taken photos as it was a very clean juvenile with the yellow tail. Alas, I didn’t start taking pictures until the fifth snake which was my lifer florida scarlet snake.

Very cool snakes. I love how the bands don’t go all the way to its belly and how yellow the band is near the head.

Second scarlet of the night was even bigger which saw a darker yellow and more grey white bands.

With a couple garters seen in between and the end of the rain the final snakes were florida cottonmouths. The first one was really fascinating as it was periscoping around the road. Wasn’t quite sure what it was doing but it was definetely following around some of the moths flying around the road.

The third cottonmouth was simply basking on the side of the road. Temperatures had slightly dropped and the road was steaming at this point.

June 18

Another night cruising the Everglades. This one set out a little earlier with the hopes to go hiking around dusk. On the way in we cruised a cottonmouth very early on. The second snake of the night proved to be the soruce of confusion as the night went on. Originally thought it may be a ratsnake and then was trying to determine if it was a banded or a brown watersnake. Posted it on iNaturalist for the time being and hopefully they can shed some light on it. We saw a handful of these throughout the night with one particular stretch of the road yielding 4 in 10 minutes and another producing 4 in 15 minutes.

After some iNaturalist identifications came through it became quite obvious that this is actually a salt marsh snake. Cool lifer.

About 45 minutes after the first of the watersnake-looking snakes we came across our third snake of the day, a nice corn snake. The most unique trait it had was a nubbed tail.

Always a pleasure to see scarlet snakes. It was a quite large individual with a low band count. This was snake 9 of 14 on the night. Last one I got photos of.

The night wrapped up with some more watersnakes and a brown snake.

June 29

First time herping in the Midwest and I stumbled upon a western ratsnake and some prairie ringnecks! Exciting for the little time I was able to spend looking for them. I was searching around a little cliff face with some bushes and rocks in front of it after a little rain. The ratsnake was hiding in a crack in the cliff face and I was surprised to see it when I flashed my light inside.

All I saw was the shine of scales on a dark snake as it slithered away. It wasn’t until I came back later that I saw the image above of it nestled into the little crack. This was exciting because the dark orange bands were visible which allowed for identification. The snake is in the center of the image.

Later it was poking its head out, curious as to what was shining light into its little hole in the cliff.

There were only a couple of good rocks to flip and to my surprise they had some ringnecks under them. Nothing special as far as ring necks go but its always fun to have a handful of snake!

September 8

No pictures but I had a heck of a day! Tried out a new location on a whim and found it to be quite productive. After coming across a closure of access to my usual green snake spot I decided to check out the area nearby. No more than 10 minutes down the road even more optimal habitat was found. On this hill side gartersnakes, red bellied snakes, and green snakes were discovered. This appeared to be a productive area as many juveniles were found. This was also the first time I had seen Vermont red bellied snakes.

October 21

As Vermont temperatures drop, I was able to return to my new found green snake spot. It was not long before I found a large adult. This poor guy had a swollen eye.

It was not much longer before I found a tiny red bellied snake, one of the smallest snakes I have ever seen!

October 26

Classic fall showers get the salamanders moving! I missed the peak of the migration but I was able to catch the tail end of the movements and see a few spotted salamanders moving on the roads around my house.

Its been a slow fall as I have been adjusting to the new house, but if I’m still in Vermont next warm season I need to find some Vermont timbers.