Six New Herp Species for 2017 (Part 2/2)

This is long overdue, and I apologize for that. There are a lot of upcoming blog posts that I will make sure I publish.

As for the second part of my April 21st to 23rd weekend, four of the following herp species were new species encounters for the year.

The morning of April 23rd was sunny, warm and the forecast for our destinations in Eastern Ontario was welcoming in the same way.

First stop was at a creek in search for Ontario's  Northern Two-lined Salamander. The water levels in the creek were extremely high as we had been having large amounts of rain. Unfortunately, this made our search a hundred times harder. Almost all of the rocks and cover to flip by the stream side were not available as the bank was non existent. But we flipped what we could.

With doubt in our heads we half heartedly flipped some rocks and Taylor managed to find the only Northern Two-lined Salamander that we would see that day.

Northern Two-lined Salamander

Northern Two-lined Salamander


After we took a few photographs and put the little salamander back under its rock we ran to the car, hopped in, and took off to our next destination (we were in a rush to make it to all locations we wanted to visit)!

Our next target was Four-toed Salamanders. Upon arrival at the flipping site we got right to it and started slipping every rock possible. We found a few Eastern Red-backed Salamanders under the rocks as we were searching.

Eastern Red-backed Salamander
Flipping rocks failed to turn up any Four-toed's so we moved on to flipping logs closer to the water in the wetland. It didn't take long until Taylor found this beauty under a moist log!

Four-toed Salamander

Four-toed Salamander

Four-toed Salamander

Once again it was a quick photo session and then we headed off to our most looked forward too site of the day.

The weather was nice, the temperature was right and we were feeling lucky! Taylor and I were headed for a Gray Ratsnnake hibernacula that I know the location of.

When we arrived at the site we immediately found a dekay's brownsnake and a couple Northern Watersnakes (the watersnakes were a new species for the year!).

Northern Watersnake

Dekay's Brownsnake

Northern Watersnake

After searching for a good while Taylor and I were growing weary of seeing any ratsnakes. We knew it was early in the year, but the weather was nice, and I had an acquaintance who had already seen an individual the weekend before. Nonetheless we were not seeing any snakes so we started packing up and getting ready to leave.

As we were leaving I saw a tree that I remembered seeing a large ratsnake on before the previous year and I pointed the exact tree and branch out to Taylor as I told him that story. While telling my story I looked on the branch and paused because I thought I saw a snake which turned out to only be another branch. But apparently I missed the ratsnake right beside it that Taylor pointed out to me two seconds later! The excitement we had at that moment was incredible. What a surprise!

Just as a side note I have noticed that for some reason every time we "give up" on looking for something we seem to magically find one, coincidence? Probably. But it happens.

Anyway, we had a ratsnake in a tree. So naturally, the cameras came out and we took some photographs. 

Gray Ratsnake
Gray Ratsnake

After observing this snake I looked to my left (I'm not sure why) and saw another large Ratsnake descending another tree!

Gray Ratsnake

Gray Ratsnake
Luckily for us, the snake came down and we were able to take a few more pictures before setting out for the day.

Gray Ratsnake

Gray Ratsnake
On our way out we ran into the smelliest Snapping Turtle I have ever encountered and a young Bullfrog to polish off our herping weekend.

Common Snapping Turtle

Common Snapping Turtle

American Bullfrog

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