We relocated to another site for the last few
days, hooking up with a SWAT team of scientists trying to apprehend new
Diamondbacks for a study. No such
luck, though we did find a previously-caught participant resting near a stump
hole.
At last we started to find something.
Corn snakes were common, some of them under cover, others curled up
beside logs, and several getting ready for their first shed of the season.
Of course, not to be outdone by their more colorful cousins, Racers
(what else?) were our most frequent finds.
In addition to Diamondbacks, Canebrakes are also being studied at this
site, and we were glad to add a couple to the sample size, as well as
discover a recapture.
This Yellow Rat Snake was stretched out on the ruins of an uprooted
tree. Several of us walked right by until
someone pointed it out.
These two were just basking out in the open, trying to warm up on a
cool, cloudy day.
And finally we found a
Hognose. For all the years we’ve been
herping, Ron and I had never seen one in the field. Maybe we haven’t spent enough time in the
right habitat, or it’s been the wrong season, or it was the lingering curse
of the common snake (see previous reports for an explanation). But this time we scored when Ron saw one
just sitting there in a patch of sunlight.
Then, with the slightest touch, it promptly rolled over, writhing and
drooling and overacting until it lay still, enthusiastically performing a
melodramatic death scene on the forest floor.
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