Snake Road - Union County, Illinois April 1st, 2010

I got out of work early on Wednesday and had the next few days off. The weather was going to be perfect so some rad dudes and I decided to make the trek to southeastern Illinois to the infamous snake road. I had been wanting to check it out for the last few years after hearing the stories from many people. For those that don't know Snake Road is a 2.5 mile gravel B level road that runs between a swamp and some limestone bluffs. Each spring and fall there is a mass migration of herps when they come out of hibernation, so much so that the county shuts the road down. Its almost as if the road is paved with snakes. The allure of snakes everywhere was too great and so the mission began.

We traveled the some 6 or 7 hours through the night to our fabeled destination, passing the time with scrabble scratch offs. We arrived real late and pitched our tents and went to bed with snakes in our dreams. The next morning was a little chilly, but as the sun rose in the cloudless sky things started to heat up. We arrived at the road about 11 and I couldnt wait to jump out of the car and start searching. It was like Christmas morning to a 6 year old.

Road itself, limestone bluffs to the right, swamp to the left.

Limestone cliffs, tons of great holes and crevices for hibernation.

Swamps, home to tons of frogs and turtles.

Within minutes we had found our first snake, now while not a very impressive find it still filled us with the hope that this was going to be a great day.

Northern Redbelly Snake (Storeria occipitomaculata occipitomaculata)

This was just a small snake, about 8 inches, with a plain colored red belly. Unfortunately, I did not take any shots of the belly.

Next we found our first large snake of the day only a few feet down the road from our first find. It was a 4 foot Black Rat Snake. Unfortunately this is another species found in Iowa, but it was still a lifer snake for some of the guys in the group.

Black Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta obsoleta)

Next we found the species of snake that would prove to be the most plentiful of the trip and also our first venomous of the day, the Western Cottonmouth. Turns out you don't have to look for these guys here, you just have to look out for them. I think at last count we found close to 40 on the day. They were everywhere. I think at least each member of our group would be walking along only to be startled by one of these guys flashing the warning sign cottonmouth at us as we were about to step on it.

Most of the time they were found like this sprawled across the road trying to soak up some afternoon rays.

Defensive pose, hence the name.

Western Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorous leucostoma)

We only found one species of water snake on the day, the Yellowbelly Water Snake, another species found in Iowa as well. These guys were spotted basking up in a shrub about 3 feet above the water. This was the only good shot I got of them.

 

Yellowbelly Water Snake (Nerodia erythrogaster flavigaster)

We also found a few garters and a bunch of ribbon snakes on the day as well. I did hear a frog giving a distress call and followed the recognizable sound to a sight I had expected to see. A Western Ribbon Snake eating a Leopard Frog.

Western Ribbon Snake (Thamnophis proximus proximus)

We also found loads of amphibians on the day. Tons of frogs and toads were calling and those that we did find I was too anxious to get on and find stuff we couldn't in Iowa so I didn't any good shots. I did get the obligatory toads doing it shot though.

American Toad (Bufo americanus)

We also saw a few lizards.

Five Line Skink (Eumeces fasciatus)

Northern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus hyacinthus)

And flipped a bunch of salamanders.

The most common we found under almost every log was the Zigzag Salamander. With as many as we found I didnt really get any good shots.

Eastern Zigzag Salamander (Plethodon dorsalis dorsalis) lifer!

Northern Slimy Salamander (Plethodon glutinosus glutinosus) lifer!

Cave Salamander (Eurycea lucifuga) lifer!

Cave Salamander as found.

Longtail Salamander (Eurycea longicauda longicauda) lifer!

We also saw a bit of other cool wildlife. It was nice to see a bunch of butterflies out and about down there.

Zebra swallowtail (Eurytides marcellus)

Goatweed Leafwing (Anaea andria)

Hopefully I can make it back again soon and spend some more time here. I think in the one afternoon that we were there we ended with 28 total herp species, and this was still a few days before the big migration.

Up the nature punx!