In the Fall, we had found 2 Brown Snakes and a Fox Snake at Allerton, while on a field trip with a class. This was surprising because we hadn't even been looking for snakes at that time, they just kinda popped out while we were doing fieldwork. We decided to make a trip out to Allerton to actually look for snakes. One Thursday morning when Sam, Tristan and I didn't have class, we drove out to Allerton. The first place we checked was the prairie. It was a large tract of land which had native prairie vegetation. About half of the prairie had been recently burned and the new green growth was flourishing all around. The other half still had long dry prairie grass and scattered thorn bushes. We walked through the prairie in parallel transects to maximize our chances off seeing snakes.
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| Prairie: PC Tristan Schramer |
Historically, Massasauga Rattlesnakes had been prevalent here, but nobody had seen one in years. We thought it would be awesome if we actually found a Massasauga but the chances were slim. We didn't end up finding any snakes on the prairie so we started to head out. On the way, we ran into the Natural Areas Manager of Allerton, Nate. We told him that we had been looking for snakes and he said that we could help them do snake surveys in the future. We also asked Nate about an old broken-down barn that we had seen nearby. He said that it was DNR property and that we were free to look for snakes there if we wanted to. At the barn there was plenty of stuff for snakes to hide under but all we found was a small Brown Snake under some old roofing. Sadly we didn't photograph that snake, but it wasn't a very impressive specimen either. The next place we went to was a railroad track. We were limited on time so we decided that we would spend a maximum of 10 minutes on the tracks. As soon as we got there, Sam found an American Toad hopping through the grass beside the tracks.
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| American Toad: PC Tristan Schramer |
Not long afterwards, Sam yelled "Yo! Snake!" He was walking a few yards ahead of me so I was there in no time. "It disappeared into this clump of grass." he said, pointing at a clump of vegetation. I circled around the grass from the other side so that the snake wouldn't escape. I looked down and saw a good sized snake head poking through in between the blades. I quickly put my hand over the snake's head and started to dig its body out from under the grass. It was a 4 foot Fox Snake! I gave it to Sam as he was the one to spot it. The snake promptly musked all over his hands and threw a bite or two. Sam was unfazed and he set the snake down on the tracks so we could get photos. As most Fox Snakes do, it went into a defensive position, with an S-shaped vertical coil and started vibrating its tail furiously. Meanwhile, Tristan had found another Brown Snake under a railroad tie but he let it go when we found the Fox Snake. We managed to get some good pictures because this snake was keen on keeping that defensive pose foe us.
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| Fox Snake: PC Yatin Kalki |
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| Fox Snake: PC Yatin Kalki |
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| Fox Snake: PC Yatin Kalki |
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| Fox Snake: PC Tristan Schramer |
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| Fox Snake: PC Tristan Schramer |
Considering we had found 2 snakes and a toad in the matter of 2 minutes at this railroad track, we thought that it would be a great place to come back to in the future. We let the Fox Snake go and made our way home. Not bad for a short morning trip.
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