Snake Road

11 & 12 August 2014

By a stroke a very good luck, Jack and I were able to visit Snake Road again, just over three months after our inaugural visit in May. The occasion for our return visit was the drive back home from a workshop I’d attended at North Alabama University. We were also fortunate enough to spend a few hours at Heron Pond on 6 August 2014 (on our way down to Alabama). This brief trip report covers both visits. Early August is, of course, not the best time for herping, especially at Snake Road, which is famous for its spring and fall migrations. Still, both visits were great successes, in our view, at least.

Heron Pond is famous for its Bird-voiced Tree Frogs and its Mole Salamanders, both of which we found easily during our short visit. The former, many of them, were “heard only”; here is a photo of the latter. Given our quick finds of these two target species, the rest was all gravy. We found this Eastern Box Turtle on the Heron Pond Trail. We also found four small Box Turtle shells nearby. Not far from the Box Turtle, we found this Ground Skink (so tiny it was hard to photograph). Frogs were ubiquitous, the most abundant of which were Wood Frogs, Green Frogs (including this this Bronze Frog), and Southern Leopard Frogs. We also had—in addition to the box turtle—two other species of turtles: Red-eared Slider and Eastern Spiny Softshell Turtle. Finally, while we were photographing the Box Turtle, we had great views of a Whip-poor-will, which I very cleverly failed to photograph (had I succeeded it would have been the 565th species of bird I have photographed in the Lower 48). As I say, a successful couple of hours; and more importantly, great fun.

On the morning of 10 August, we drove from our hotel in Carbondale to Snake Road. On the drive, we found this Common Musk Turtle. It had just been hit; still alive, but in bad shape. Jack picked him up and placed him in the grass further from the road, so that he might at least die in peace. Further down the road, we found this Red-eared Slider, which we scooped off the asphalt and released in the swamp. As soon as we arrived at Snake Road, we began finding amphibians—lots of frogs, and also some good salamanders, including this Spotted Salamander, this Long-tailed Salamander, and this Eastern Newt. Our first snake of the day was this Cottonmouth. Just down the road we found this Black Racer. Other notable herps seen, but not photographed, this day include Eastern Smooth Earthsnake and Broad-headed Skink. On the drive back to Carbondale, long after dark, we had one DOR Cottonmouth.

The next morning (11 August), we had another Red-eared Slider on the drive back to Snake Road. But this morning’s slider was much larger than yesterday’s, as you can see here. We also found this DOR Diamondback Watersnake on the road. At Snake Road we spent the morning finding lots of amphibians, as we did yesterday, including one new species: Bird-voiced Tree Frog. But we weren’t having much luck finding snakes, so after lunch we decided to hike and cruise the road (Pine Hill Road) above the bluffs. This turned out to be a very good decision, as we found this beautiful Timber Rattlensnake, and later, after dark, this handsome Copperhead. We also found, and caught, another Black Racer (that bit Jack and then raced away, and hence went unphotographed, at least by us), and, after dark, we found this Redbelly Snake. During a break from up on the bluffs, we also found this Eastern Garter Snake, this Five-lined Skink (one of many, in fact), and—while searching the leaf piles at the base of the bluffs—this Midland Brown Snake.

So, in our two days of herping at Snake Road we had eight species of snake (if you count DOR’s, the total was nine). Not bad for the height of summer. Coupled with our great success one week earlier in just a couple of hours at Heron Pond, it was another great herping trip to the Shawnee National Forest. Jack and I drove home, immensely pleased with our visit, but blue that the trip was over. The one-and-only low point of this nine-day-trip, came on the drive home, a few hours after leaving Carbondale: traffic in Chicago. Mother of God, it’s awful. How do people do that every day of their lives?!?!?!