Summer catch up! (part 1)

As the title suggest I need to do a little catch up.  I have been getting out in spurts again, not nearly as much as I would like.  As the weather has been heating up I have also had some time to do some night cruising. I'm hoping now with the heat of summer beginning I can get out and focus more attention on bats, butterflies, and dragonflies.  When I get more time Ill make a part two and include late spring finds. Until then here is some more herps found from the past 3 weeks.

Fox Snake - Butler County, Iowa - 6-23-2010

Northern Redbelly Snake - Bremer County - 6-23-2010

Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake - Bremer County - 6-23-2010

Eastern Garter Snake - Grant County, Wisconsin - 6-23-2010

Eric and I spent a few hours night cruising. I had found Crayfish Snakes at this spot before and since he hadn't ever found one I had promised him that we would find one on this night. As my luck skill would have it we found one. The night started off slow, we saw a nice sized hit Fox Snake that was probably hit early in the day. It took awhile but we found our first live snake.

Brown Snake - Polk County - 6-17-2010

I think we actually caught this girl two or three times in the evening. Each time we would place her off the road, then when we came upon her would get excited only to realize it was the same snake. Our next find of the night was our target species.

Crayfish Snake - Polk County - 6-17-2010

While taking a bunch of photos of the Crayfish Snake our next snake crawled up next to us.

Plains Garter Snake - Polk County - 6-17-2010

We pressed on, finding a few more browns and garters. We capped off the night with a fairly good sized Fox Snake.

Fox Snake - Polk County - 6-17-2010

I found myself with a nice afternoon after finishing work stuff early and figured I would cruise on over to one of my hotspots. Found the usual fare here with about a half dozen milks and garters.

Milk Snake - Clarke County - 6-15-2010

Cruised on by another quick spot to flip some boards. Found nothing, but as I was leaving I drove up on a nice little garter.

Plains Garter Snake - Boone County - 6-15-2010

Then I was driving to a new tin site that we had set earlier and I cruised a new Iowa species for me. 

Slender Glass Lizard - Lucas County - 6-15-2010

Eric and I found a nice late Sunday afternoon with some daylight to burn and figured we would try our luck skills at finding some timbers. We not only found them but a decent number of ringnecks, milks and garters.

Prairie Ringneck Snake - Madison County - 6-6-2010

Milk Snake - Madison County - 6-6-2010

Timber Rattlesnake - Madison County - 6-6-2010

I was traveling from working a job in Missouri to meet Eric and on the way there stopped at a little hotspot I showed him earlier this year. Found the usual fare here; Northern Prairie Skinks, Northern Lined Snakes, and garter snakes.

Northern Lined Snake - Ringgold County 6-6-2010

Northern Lined Snake - Ringgold County 6-6-2010 (ventral)

There have been turtles found the past few weeks too.

False Map Turtle - Grant County, Wisconsin - 6-23-2010

Common Snapping Turtle - Lucas County - 6-15-2010

Common Snapping Turtle - Guthrie County - 6-21-2010

Blandings Turtle - Grant County, Wisconsin - 6-23-2010

Up the Nature Punx!