Friday, November 25, 2011

Fall Herp Wrap-up

I was digging a soil pit on the edge of an agricultural field near Crawfordsville, IN, when this Western Chorus Frog caught my eye. I thought it was interesting to see it outside of breeding season.

I run across Spring Peepers quite regularly while walking in the woods, but I less frequently see Wood Frogs. This Wood Frog was near beautiful wooded wetland in south central Michigan.

This Gray Treefrog seems to be transitioning from green to gray. Maybe that is the color it wanted to be. It would have been fun to observe to see if it was changing and in which direction.

A Gray Treefrog rests on a Boneset leaf.

This full Garter Snake was relaxing on an island in the Kalamazoo River.

This large (~5')snake was out on a warm October day on reclaimed mine land near Terre Haute. I didn't get a great look at it before it disappeared, but I am pretty sure it was a Black Rat Snake*.


*Much thanks to Kelly for his identification of this Racer. I stared at pictures for a while without coming to anything definitive. It was quite a large Racer.

1 comment:

Kelly said...

Hey Ben! Great photos of great animals! I think your last snake is a large adult black racer of whatever subspecies occurs in that area. The angular face and well-defined and straight white to dark border along the upper lip seems to fit it better than black rat, but I could be wrong.