Reptilian fascination

 I'll cover Kingsnakes and Pit Vipers in another post, but for now here are some of the snakes I've found in Missouri. First, I'll cover milksnakes. These beautiful snakes are plentiful and not overly difficult to find. Look for them under rocks, stones, and boards in open glades, fields, or the edges of forests where the sun can warm these objects up.  The western ribbon snake is beautiful snake. They are not uncommon but I found less of them than many other species, possibly in part because I tend to search in the fields and glades and these snakes are probably more common in wetter areas but expect to come across one from time to time anyway. Garter snakes are quite common, probably more so near water but they can turn up anywhere. I enjoy seeing these snakes especially when they have a lot of red coloration. The eastern hognose is a strange snake. They can show up in a lot of places but determining when you will see one is tricky. There are some places they are more lik...

 The four toed salamander is an attractive, small species that is widespread in geographic area but the populations seem more localized than many other species. I had made plans to specifically search for this species, but as fate would have it before I could do so, I lifted a piece of wood near a small pool at the head of a tiny stream, and there was a four toed salamander. At that time no snakes were seen at this location. During the heat of summer, I took someone with a fear of snakes to this same location having told them there's unlikely to be any snakes there. This proved to be untrue as apparently during the heat of summer the snakes decided this was very suitable habitat and we saw a black rat snake and timber rattlesnake.

 The lesser siren is an interesting amphibian. They have very short limbs, gills, and can endure periods of drought by borrowing into the mud. In fact, the pictures below were taken from a drainage ditch in the Midwest which is quite likely to experience droughts at times. The ditch appeared to contain a significant number of them and I was able to capture some by dipnetting at night with a flashlight for illumination. Please note that the animals were released exactly was found and were only kept, in a plastic container that had never been exposed to soaps or chemicals of any kind, for a few moments.

 Dana Commons is the remains of a town that can be hiked to near Petersham, Massachusetts. The town was officially ended in 1938 and the land is part of the Quabbin Reservoir now. Today, all that remains of the town are stone walls and cellars. There are some signs that explain what some of the buildings were and pictures of the buildings. There are brooks, forests, fields, and a lake to be seen on the walk to the old town site. The trip out and back is somewhere around 3-4 miles in total and the trail is flat and level, so it is a fairly easy walk.  The lake had some turtles, ducks, and signs of beaver. An Osprey flew overhead. In the fields, I saw garter snakes and hawks.