WARNING: DOR photos below

Starting in Southeast Oklahoma on September 3rd I spent a night cruising. Had some crazy close calls which was a huge bummer. The night started off hiking before dusk and had a snake (vaguely watersnake looking) escape under some logs and brush which set a poor tone for the night. Moved to a seperate location to cruise and came across a huge tragedy. A just hit western mud snake, not yet stiff and very minimal external evidence of impact.

Then cruised a broad-banded watersnake (southern watersnake), western ribbonsnake (orange striped), and 2 copperheads. More tragedy as we cruised some recently hit prairie kingsnakes.

The following day we moved up to Kansas where we cruised and flipped a short stretch of road for an hour or so. Came across three prairie ring necks, a plain bellied watersnake, and a western ratsnake.

Three days later I was in Illinois walking Snake Road and saw a western cottonmouth.

There were tons of armadillos out.

Really exciting to take a few hours along this road trip to explore and yield some results.

Broad-banded Water Snake Western Ribbon Snake Eastern Copperheads (2) Prairie Ring-Neck (3) Western Ratsnake Plain-bellied Water Snake Western Cottonmouth

Notable: DOR western mud and prairie kingsnakes

10 snakes, 7 species, 4 lifers and some great habitat scouted.