There are some loose stones in the woods at one of the nearby state parks, and I thought I'd take a jaunt out to the park this evening to do a bit of herping. Now normally when I go to the park, I take along a camera, just in case I should encounter any interesting flora or fauna that I might need to take some pictures of. The thought occurred to me as I got in the car and left campus that maybe I should go home first and pick up my camera. "Nah," I thought, "how likely is it that I'll run across anything I don't already have pictures of?"
So I get to the park, find the stones, and start turning them over to see if there's anything interesting underneath. Holy cow! Snake city! In less than 10 minutes' time, I uncover some 20 snakes or so. Most of them were Garter Snakes (
Thamnophis sirtalis), as it turns out. Interesting, but nothing spectacular.
A couple of the snakes were juvenile Northern Water Snakes (
Nerodia sipedon). Again, interesting but not spectacular.
Under one of the rocks was a juvenile Garter Snake. I was about to set the rock back down again when something in my brain said, "Wait a minute; there's something strange about that snake." So I grabbed it to get a better look. Immediately, I realized I was holding a Brown Snake (
Storeria dekayi)! In this part of the country, a naturalist might go his entire life without seeing one of these elusive little reptiles.
And I didn't bring my camera.
Turning over some more rocks, I found a few more snakes, then the biggest Long-Tailed Salamander (
Eurycea longicauda) I've ever seen. Another rock had not one but
two Slimy Salamanders (
Plethodon glutinosus) under it -- another species that can be quite difficult to find around here.
Best day of herping I've had in years.
And I didn't bring my camera!
Okay, so tomorrow evening I'm going back. This time, I'll
definitely bring my camera. With luck, I'll be able to find those critters again.
Cheers,
Michael