Graduation Trip: Day 3

MONDAY, MAY 22:

Today was my first day of this trip almost completely devoted to herping, and find herps (and some birds too!) I absolutely did! Tony and I headed over to Missouri in hopes of finding Plains Hognose and Southern Water Snakes, both of which would be lifers for me, among other herpetological possibilities such as various Map Turtles and Diamondback Watersnakes.

BLACK-NECKED STILTS found on the way over to our first site, along the highway:

AMERICAN KESTREL:

An early summer herping excursion is not complete without a Red-eared Slider road rescue!

The drive over.

Our first stop was at a sand prairie in hopes for Dusky Hognose, among other things. There were plenty of flowering Prickly Pear Cactus to be had:

While we were flipping for snakes in a large pile of junk, Tony flipped my lifer Eastern Narrowmouth Toad! What an awesome, unique species. These guys are shy and almost impossible to “pin down” to a reliable location, so this was a nice unexpected lifer.

Their defense mechanism is to puff up full of air:

After dipping on Hognose, we headed to a nearby wildlife refuge to try for Southern Watersnakes which according to Tony are quite common there. This buzzy NORTHERN PARULA was singing above the trail:

Common Five-lined Skinks abounded trailside:

My lifer Southern Painted Turtle, a subspecies with a red “racing stripe” down the carapace:

Then, Tony spotted my lifer Southern Watersnake hiding in the bushes a bit off the trail! Awesome! this species is more heavily patterned, darker, and orangier than its lookalike the Midland Watersnake, and with thicker banding. A perfectly harmless species. Lifer!!!

This picturesque Spiny Softshell Turtle gave us pause because we couldn’t see the spikes on the leading edge of its carapace, but other herpers online indeed confirmed that the patterning is correct for Spiny as opposed to its rarer cousin, the Smooth:

Common Red-eared Slider laying eggs right on the road!

Two Common Musk Turtles basking. These were the most common turtle in my childhood Michigan lake, Selkirk Lake.

I barely snapped a photo of the rear end of this hen WILD TURKEY before she disappeared into the weeds:

After an eventful and somewhat successful time in Missouri, Tony and I headed back to Illinois to search for two (and possibly three!) species of Map Turtle that would be lifers for me: False, Mississippi, and the rare Ouachita. At an overlook of the Mississippi River, we immediately found a bunch of False Map Turtles swimming in the water with their telltale inverted “L” markings on their heads.

A Midland Watersnake drifted by:

Then, I spotted a heavily-patterned Map Turtle: we determined it to be an Ouachita Map Turtle since the patterning is so vibrant and heavy, and there is a yellow spot below the eye — no other Map species in this area has this feature. A beautiful turtle, even if a brief view — and an unexpected and rare lifer!

Horseshoe Lake was next where RED-HEADED WOODPECKERS abounded:

At another overlook of the Mississippi overflow, we found the third species of Map Turtle: Mississippi Map Turtles, rounding out our Map Turtle trifecta for the day! Awesome! These turtles are differentiated from the others by the single yellow marking that sort of wraps around the eye, as opposed to the L marking on the False that is completely removed from the eye.

A False Map was also swimming nearby:

And a BALD EAGLE surveyed the area from atop a Cypress:

We hit Mermet Lake again to try for Diamondback Watersnakes — and once again, Midland Watersnakes abounded:

We flipped this weird roadside EASTERN NEWT:

YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS:

Another rather exhilarating flip was this venomous Northern Cottonmouth:

GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER:

We believe this is a Swamp Rabbit due to its large size, but wanted to confirm. Anybody know how to differentiate Swamp Rabbit vs Eastern Cottontail with other morphological factors?

And we ended our excursion at Mermet with intergrade Midland X Southern Painted Turtles — note the present, but thin racing stripe:

The evening was beautiful back on Tony’s property:

We walked his ponds at night for Sirens, Tadpole Salamanders, and others, and we turned up a couple neonate (young) Midland Watersnakes:

And a large Plain-bellied Watersnake that quickly fled our flashlights:

Then, in Tony’s pond where Western Lesser Sirens breed, he brought up three into his net on the first dip into the pond! Awesome!

They have the most slimy, intriguing touch. These creatures are important prey items for predators such as Mudsnakes, Great Blue Herons, and various birds of prey.

Bird-of-the-day to the Black-necked Stilts and honorable mention to all my herp lifers today: Eastern Narrowmouth Toad, Southern Watersnake, Southern Painted, False Map, Ouachita Map, & Mississippi Map Turtles. A fantastic day of being outdoors!

Good birding and herping,
Henry
World Life List: 1151 Species