Spring Herping in Ford County, Illinois

Plains Leopard Frog: PC Tristan Schramer 

Date:
May 3rd and 5th 2015

Species Found:

1. Plains Leopard Frog (Lithobates blairi)
2. Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon sipedon)
3. Plains Garter Snake (Thamnophis radix)
4. Eastern American Toad (Anaxyrus americanus americanus)
5. Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans blanchardi)
6. Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis)
7. American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)

The Trip:

While Tristan was doing some research about Kirtland's Snakes in Illinois, he came across a post by a guy named Conner who had found dozens of these rare snakes in a small lake in a suburban area. We reached out to Conner and he was more than happy to show us where he had found them. On the 3rd we met Conner in Ford county along with another accomplished herper named Mike. On that day we didn't find any Kirtland's Snakes but we did see why they occurred in that habitat. The lake was bordered by soft soil riddled with crayfish burrows and large rocks on top - perfect Kirtland's Snake habitat. While we were there, we caught a Plains Leopard Frog and saw a few Northern Water Snakes which we didn't manage to catch. I had seen my first Plains Leopard Frog the previous day at Mercer, but we hadn't caught that one. This time, I could really examine it and see what made it different from other Leopard Frog Species. The Plains had a shorter snout, circular spots on the back and stripe interruptions near the thighs.

Kirtland's Snake Habitat:PC Tristan Schramer

Plains Leopard Frog: PC Tristan Schramer

Plains Leopard Frog: PC Tristan Schramer

Conner was really eager to have us in his neck of the woods so he offered to drive us up some other time to look again. On the 5th, we took him up on his offer. Conner and his twin brother Culton me and Tristan up and took us to the lake once again. And once again we stuck out at finding Kirtland's Snakes. To salvage what we could of the day, Conner took us to a few more snake spots he knew around his house. The first place we went to was a pile of debris beside a railroad track. Conner had found Plains Garter Snakes here and I had seen PLENTY of those before, passing by them almost everyday on campus, but I was curious to see how these snakes differed from the ones I was used to. Under an old tire Tristan found a small Plains Garter Snake with a big attitude. The snake immediately bit him on the hand and musked everywhere. This was so unlike the members of the species I had encountered before. I had caught close to 100 individual Plains Garter Snakes on campus and not a single one had ever even opened its mouth to bite. I thought that this bitey Garter was just an outlier until we found the next snake under a piece of tin. This one was bigger than the previous one and it all the same things, plus it pooped all over Tristan's hand. I came to the conclusion that either something has really pissed these snakes off, or the campus Garters are all softies. Sadly, we didn't get any photos of those angry Garters.

The next place Conner took us was a field by a lake where he had found Eastern Garters and Fox Snakes. We were welcomed by the happy trills of Eastern American Toads calling for mates. The majority of the calls were coming from this little puddle that had been made by a tractor's tires. We counted 6 calling toads just from the car. We got out to get a better look and surprisingly a good number of the toads kept calling. It was really cool to see the toads calling literally 2 inches away from us.

American Toad: PC Tristan Schramer

American Toad: PC Tristan Schramer

We walked through the field and found a few Cricket Frogs hopping around. Some had streaks of bright green and others of rust.

Cricket Frog: PC Tristan Schramer

Cricket Frog: PC Tristan Schramer

At the corner of the field, there was a pile of shingles - a great place to find snakes. Sure enough, a few layers in we found a large 3 foot Eastern Garter Snake. "That's the biggest damn Garter I've ever seen!" exclaimed Conner as he proceeded to examine the large female. Less than 10 seconds later, I pulled an even LARGER Eastern Garter from a few layers deeper. This one looked about 3 and a half foot long, which surprised us all because the biggest Garter we had seen before these 2 was a little over 2 foot long. This snake musked, pooped and tried to bite me. The musk of the Eastern Garter was a lot stronger and more offensive than that of the Plains Garter. We found a family of mice a little deeper in the shingle pile but that was about it.

Eastern Garter Snake: PC Tristan Schramer

Me holding both Eastern Garters: PC Tristan Schramer

Eastern Garters: PC Tristan Schramer

After we released the big Garters, we decided to call it a day. I didn't see any new or rare species on this trip but I did see a different side to the species I was used to seeing.