Snakes on the Plain

My brain was awhirl with thoughts of all things herps within the confines of the Sunflower State and once my brain gets implanted with thoughts of destinations and possible observations, I become almost obsessive - for better or worse.

My plan was to drive non-stop from Gainesville, Florida all the way to Russell, Kansas (which is almost dead-center in the state, thus centrally-located) on Friday after work. A roughly 20 hour drive, I knew I'd have to spend at least four or five days in Kansas to make it worthwhile. Driving that distance by myself was tiring just to think about, so I beckoned my longtime herping companion Dick Bartlett to accompany me. He'd just come back from a puffin trip in Bar Harbor, Maine, so his initial reply was "Thanks, but no thanks." Ugh. Then, the day before my planned departure, he called and said "OK, lets go." Sweet relief!

2:30 pm on Friday came and so did Dick, in his trusty metal steed. Our trip to Kansas would take us the remaining 1.5 hours of North Florida, the length of Georgia, through Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and about 3.5 hours of Kansas. Taking turns sleeping and filling the gas tank we eventually arrived in Russell on Saturday at around 10 am. Mostly dead, we decided (of course) to go out and drive some roads for birds and other wildlife - because we hadn't driven enough. We found roughly a million and half flycatchers, dickcissels, western meadowlarks and a handful of upland sandpipers and other LBJs (little brown jobs), but no snakes. The temperature rose fast into the low triple digits and that slowed everything down, including us. We conceded to tiredness and retreated to a hotel.

Upland Sandpiper (Bartramia longicauda) on an old fence post.

After a very short 4 hour rest, we headed an hour or so away for a series of dusty, grid roads that bisected some natural and disturbed prairie habitat. Driving with a constant rooster tail of white dust behind us, we drove for a couple hours seeing only a few DOR (dead on road) snakes. Mostly Red-sided Gartersnakes and Plains Gartersnakes. But just as the daylight was fading and the shadows were lengthening we saw a small snake sitting motionless on the edge of the road. I jumped out quickly and received a dust cloud to the face. Luckily the snake hadn't moved from its resting position and also luckily it was not a road casualty. I picked up a beautiful young Speckled Kingsnake (Lampropeltis holbrooki) and brought it to Dick, who was in charge of the steering, breaking and turning portion of the road cruising experience. He is very proficient at these skills.

Speckled Kingsnake (Lampropeltis holbrooki)

In June the sun doesn't set until after 9 pm in this part of Kansas and doesn't get fully dark until almost 10 pm. But that didn't matter this evening as an immense thunderstorm, born from the distant prairies and carried across huge open expanses, had nearly reached us. We could see a solid wall of rain approaching us and lightning that would put any all night rave to shame. Since we were in Kansas, the only thing I could think about was tornadoes and yellow brick roads. We drove back towards Russell but were shortly overtaken by the outer edge of the storm, but missed the big event. Frogs and Toads were skipping across the road in our headlights like thousands of little bouncy balls. Mostly Plains Leopard Frogs and Woodhouse's Toads. We paused for a long moment just south of the storm to watch the lightning display. With the car and headlights turned-off I stepped out of the car for some photos. Only the swooshing wind and the subtle rumble of distant lightning could be heard. Peaceful.

Plains Leopard Frog (Rana [Lithobates] blairi)

Saturday morning came early for us. We were out the hotel door around 7 am and headed in the direction of another target, the Western Massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus tergeminus). This time of year females will be out in the morning warming themselves and their unborn babies. And even though you can also road cruise them, we decided to walk a dike road that had rip rap on both sides and was surrounded by wet prairie. Immediately we found a very nice Red-sided Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis) stretched-out on the rocky road. Thamnophines can be immensely beautiful and this individual was no exception. We trudged onward for several minutes and saw a few Diamondback Watersnakes (Nerodia rhombifer) that were camera shy. Onward more and the grasses within the trail started getting thick and tall. Now carefully walking, I noticed movement in the grass only inches from my left foot. It was a sausage of a Massasauga and it very quickly retreated into the rocky rip rap. I didn't expect that! Would that be the only glimpse we'd see of this species? We didn't have to walk far before the answer to that question was "no." Another gravid female was out basking, and it was much easier to photograph. This was a subspecies lifer for me, so I took many, many photos from all angles. In fact, I took so long that I hadn't realized Dick was done and heading back to the car. This road/path was long and straight and I could see that Dick was nearly to the car that was parked about a half mile away! Oops.

Red-sided Gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis)

Western Massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus tergeminus)

The day had just started and one of our targets was acquired. On the way back I actually saw another gravid female heating-up on bordering rocks. So now it was time for some late morning birding. We drove roads and watched the fence posts, electric wires and over the road flybys for the feathered critters. The only notable birds were a pair of Western Grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) that were in a prairie pool. We found a few more Red-sided Garter Snakes and Plains Garter Snakes (Thamnophis radix) along the route, but that was it for the day and a diurnal nap was in order.

Western Grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis)

That evening we cruised hard for several hours only finding more garter snakes, a DOR Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis), many Western Slender Glass Lizards (Ophisaurus attenuatus attenuatus) and Texas Horned Lizards (Phrynosoma cornutum). These were all fun, but we did want to see a live Prairie Rattlesnake. As night fell, yet another large thunderstorm was heading our direction - a carbon copy of the previous night. We drove a little in the rain finding more of the same amphibians. We called it a night when we noticed the temperature had dipped into the mid 60s.

Western Slender Glass Lizard (Ophisaurus attenuatus attenuatus)

Texas Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum) in the foreground and Richard D. Bartlett (Dick Bartlett) in the back...incase there was any confusion.

Texas Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum)

Monday. I had to do some work on my computer from the hotel so Dick took a solo. He drove three hours to SW Kansas in search of Black-billed Magpies. When he arrived back at the hotel he was spent. It was a long day for him, but he did find the birds. I don't know how he did it, but almost immediately we left for a one hour trip north to do some more afternoon and evening cruising. This night we did fairly well, finding a few beautiful Ornate Box Turtles (Terrapene ornata ornata) and by flipping rocks at the base of a road-cut we found another Speckled Kingsnake, a Prairie Ring-necked Snake (Diadophis punctatus arnyi) and an Emory's Ratsnake (Pantherophis emoryi). Later that evening while driving, we came over a hill to see a moderately sized snake scooting off the shoulder of the road. We hurried in its direction and stopped to see a five foot Bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi) heading for a barbed wire fence line. I jumped out of the car while it was still half moving and I got the snake back onto the road for some pictures, which did not please him one bit. It reared-up into the "s" shaped strike position and posed for the two-legged interlopers. This was about 7 pm and the sun was getting low, but it didn't matter because yet again the clouds were moving in. Oh well, we had a decent day and our hotel was an hour south, so we decided it best to go back and get an actual decent night's sleep.

Ornate Box Turtle (Terrapene ornata ornata)

Bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in its element.

Tuesday. Our last full day/night of herping was here. We managed a few cool animals in the morning, most notably a Western Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta bellii) crossing from an agriculture field towards a small cattle pond. These are the prettiest of the painted turtles, in my impartial opinion. We then found a Graham's Crayfish Snake (Regina grahamii). At this point the temperatures had reached supernova and this little Crayfish Snake was sitting motionless in the middle of the road. I thought it had to be dead, but when I reached down to pick it up, it quickly squirmed and bit me. Dead things don't usually act this way, so I had to surmise that it was in-fact alive.

Western Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta bellii)

Graham's Crayfish Snake (Regina grahamii)

A midday nap and then we were off cruising the road in search of a Prairie Rattler. Almost instantly after turning onto the road of choice, we saw a snake in the road ahead. Its head was down, its back was convex and tapered towards a horizontal tail. THAT is a rattlesnake! As we drove up to the beast we watched as it stopped moving and started to assume the defensive coiled posture. It was hot outside - probably in the mid/upper 90s and this snake was hot. While this was not a lifer for me or Dick, it was still a pleasure to be in its presence. We took photos until our arms couldn't hold the cameras up and then moved on. That night we cruised an additional two Prairie Rattlers, but nothing else.

A Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis) basking on a chalky road.

Close-up of a Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis)

A happy adult Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis) that was crossing at sunset while temperatures were in the mid 60s.

Like most trips, this trip was tiring diversion from reality, but worth every baggy eye. We ended up driving home the next afternoon after a bit of birding. About 20 hours later, we were home.

Even though Kansas has been typecast as a boring, tornado-filled expanse, there is a little bit of awesome if you look beyond the wheat.

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