Ontario's Herpetofauna

April 21st to 23rd was another weekend full of driving and herping. A lot of the weekends target species were found, but also many were missed. The weekend started off with a 3 hour car ride to Taylor's house again near Lindsay, Ontario. After crashing the night there we set off for a day of herping in the Gravenhurst area.  It was a cool morning but we thought we might be able to get some snakes or skinks underneath rocks or basking on top of them trying to soak up some heat. After flipping countless rocks and finding more cockroaches than I had ever seen before I finally flipped our first herp, and it was a new species for the year for both of us! This was a female Five-lined Skink that was under a thin rock. Five-lined Skink - Gravenhurst Area Five-lined Skink - Gravenhurst Area Five-lined Skink - Gravenhurst Area Five-lined Skink - Gravenhurst Area After finding the female skink I spotted another male that got away in a rock crevice...

Following the adventures of finding garter snakes and some turtles the previous day, I set out for Norfolk County on Saturday April 15th to Norfolk County. I was hoping to find some early Hognose Snakes and possibly some Smooth Greensnakes or Eastern Foxsnakes. Unfortunately I came up empty handed in that regard but still managed to find a few herps. I turned up a few Eastern Gartersnakes in Norfolk and my first of the year Green Frog in Brant County on the way home. This Green Frog was exceptionally large but was very cold and lethargic so I decided it was best to take one in situ from a fair distance away in order to ensure it did not waste energy trying to "escape" from me. Green Frog - Brant County Determined, I set out again that evening to find more species to progress along in my Ontario herp challenge. This time I was searching for a specific species that I knew I would find. They had been calling for the past two days and I knew exactly where to go to fi...