4-22-17

Trip Details

Location: Benton and Linn Counties, Iowa

Weather: 65 degrees, clear, slight breeze

Time: 4:00 p.m.

Herpers: Laura and Jim Scharosch

Account by: Jim Scharosch

Photos by: Jim Scharosch

Laura and I hit a local den in Benton County to see if the milk snakes were up yet. We had seen garter and brown snakes here and knew it was about time for the milks to pop to the surface. This Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum) proved us correct under the third rock we checked.

Another milk soon followed, this one a last year's baby.

Next came a sub-adult Fox Snake (Pantherophis vulpinis). It had a couple of small wounds, one of which is visible in the photo, but it seemed fine.

Another adult milk with large brick red saddles.

This smaller milk had a nice light gray background color.

A second sub-adult fox snake, nearly identical to the first one.

We snagged a double on Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) under one rock.

As we were grabbing up the garters we heard something crawling through the grass right in front of us. Turned out to be this small adult fox snake. He didn't really want to pose for me, thus this terrible shot...

We closed out this spot with this out of focus hand held shot of another baby milk snake.

We stopped at another small rocky area in Linn County on our way home. I haven't seen much at this spot the past few years after many years of it paying off with milks. Today it turned up this last year's baby Racer (Coluber constrictor), my first racer of the season.

That was it for the day. The milk snakes are up and moving now!!