8-13-18

Trip Details

Location: Jackson County, Iowa

Weather: 75-80 degrees, fair skies, no wind

Time: 9:30 am

Herpers: Josh Otten, Don Becker and Jim Scharosch

Account by: Jim Scharosch

Photos by: Jim Scharosch and Don Becker

Don and I had been spending a lot of time this season on the Big Sand Mound project and hadn't gotten a lot of time to do other herping trips around the state. We knew Josh was going to be leaving soon and was busy getting ready to move, so when he let us know he had a day to spare we booked it right away. Josh had never seen a timber in northeast Iowa, so we it was a pretty obvious choice as to how to fill the day.

We headed out early, knowing that even though it was mid summer, we could find snakes out if we searched rookery areas. We knew we would have to avoid disturbing the rooking females as much as possible. We started at the site where we have been doing all of the habitat restoration work up in Jackson County.

We checked a few spots on the lower part of the hill without luck, but as soon as we approached the rookery we spotted our first Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) at the base of the large rookery outcrop.

Photo by Jim Scharosch

It was a large female. We have learned from time lapse cameras that we have run on this rookery that the females often travel up and down the outcrop, basking on the top in the morning and using the shady areas under the cedar tree in the heat of the afternoon. It was a bit unusual to see one at the base of the outcrop in the morning, but not unheard of.

The top of the rookery also had two females sitting up under the edge of the rooftop rock.

Photos by Jim Scharosch

Here is Josh grabbing a photo of these two snakes.

Photo by Jim Scharosch

Our next stop was the nearby overwintering site that is only fifty or so feet away. We didn't expect to see anything there this time of year, but were surprised to spot another timber back in a crevice.

Photo by Don Becker

Not long after that Josh found a timber basking near some rocks on the hillside.

Photo by Jim Scharosch

We moved to another nearby hillside that has only recently had rattlesnake activity. We had seen snakes there the past few seasons after never having seen them there previously, despite repeated efforts. We have observed snakes there pre and post brumation, but haven't found any rooking females there to know that recruitment is happening at this new site. Well, now we have!

Photos by Jim Scharosch

It is hard to see but there are three big female timbers tucked back into the crevice below that tiny cedar tree.

Photos by Jim Scharosch

We had previously found spring and fall timbers basking in this exact spot and it was exciting to see females now using this spot to rook. There are not a lot of prime rooking locations on this hill, so this was really good news. We will need to visit the site in a few weeks and see if we can find sign that babies were produced.

We also wanted to stop at another site we visit often in Jackson County so we moved on fairly quickly. This was site where we had done some work on some encroaching trees the previous fall and winter and we were wanting to see if there was any change in habitat usage there.

It was a long hike in, but it proved to be worth it almost right away. In the area where we had done the most work we found three big female timbers that were rooking at a large rock on the ground. Only two are in the photo, the third ducked under the rock as soon as we approached. This area could not have held rooking females prior to the work we did so this was really awesome.

Photo by Don Becker

We hadn't seen any milk snakes up to this point as it was a bit late in the season to find them. Therefore it was kinda surprising when Don turned up a little Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum) under a rock.

Photo by Don Becker

We drifted towards the car along the hillside and approached the western-most glade on the hill. Don spotted another timber basking on a rock.

Photo by Don Becker

It was another large rooking female, and it was one of the gray timbers we only really seem to find in this area. She didn't want to pose for photos so this was the best we got.

Soon I spotted another timber and let Don play "find the rattlesnake". Maybe he had a bad angle on it as he didn't manage to spot it until I pointed it out.

Photo by Don Becker

It was another great day and I was really happy that we were able to show again that the work we are doing on habitat restoration seems to be doing the snakes some good. It was also cool that Josh got to see some NE Iowa timbers and these amazing habitats.