S. IL Day 4: Wildcat again, then back to Snake Rd!

Southern IL

Saturday 10 April 2021 72 °F

TUESDAY, MARCH 30:

Simon, Peter, Oliver and I started off the day herping Wildcat Bluff today before heading to Snake Road and eventually heading home. We started off the day with a nice Little Brown Skink:

And Midwestern Wormsnake:

And an even tinier Northern Slimy Salamander than yesterday’s!

Simon had a crazy flip on the hillside with both a Ring-necked Snake:

And a Marbled Salamander!!!

The best flip of the morning was done once again by Simon, my second red Eastern Milknsnake of the trip and his lifer of the Red subspecies! Super cool!!!!

Yet another Wormsnake:

Common Five-lined Skink:

The view from Wildcat Bluff is one-of-a-kind in Illinois, looking out high over a vast swamp:

And one last flip from Wildcat Bluff yielded an Eastern Fence Lizard which I was super happy to be able to have actually caught since they are incredibly fast:

At Snake Road unfortunately we missed our target snake for the day, but we did manage to find a good number of Salamanders including a nice Spotted:

And Zigzag:

This Long-tailed was the Tolzmann’s 19th salamander species for the year — very cool!

Simon spotted this large, dark snake in a rock crevice — it is either a Black Ratsnake (more likely) or a Black Racer — a little too hard to ID with just this angle through the rocks, and handling of snakes is prohibited at Snake Road.

So, with that, Oliver, Ben and I headed back to Chicago after a wonderful four days of herping southern Illinois. I ended the trip with 41 herp species including ten lifers, and this trip tied Simon, Peter and I for most salamander species ever observed in Illinois in one calendar year!
1. Long-tailed Salamander
2. Spotted Salamander
3. Eastern Red-backed Salamander
4. Central Newt
5. Southern Two-lined Salamander
6. Cave Salamander
7. Tiger Salamander
8. Marbled Salamander
9. Northern Slimy Salamander
10. Mole Salamander
11. Northern Dusky Salamander
12. Spotted Dusky Salamander
13. Northern Zigzag Salamander
14. Four-toed Salamander LIFER
15. Western Lesser Siren LIFER
16. Green Frog
17. American Bullfrog
18. American Toad
19. Spring Peeper
20. Green Treefrog
21. Southern Leopard Frog
22. Blanchard’s Chricket Frog
23. Boreal Chorus Frog
24. Western Chorus Frog LIFER
25. Midland Watersnake
26. Plain-bellied Watersnake
27. Mississippi Green Watersnake LIFER
28. Gray Ratsnake
29. Shawnee Kingsnake LIFER
30. Black Racer LIFER
31. Northern Cottonmouth
32. Dekay’s Brownsnake
33. Midwestern Wormsnake LIFER
34. Ring-necked Snake LIFER
35. Eastern Red Milksnake LIFER
36. Red-eared Slider
37. Spiny Softshell Turtle
38. Eastern Box Turtle
39. Five-lined Skink
40. Brown Skink
41. Fence Lizard LIFER