Photo and Observation by Steve Marks 2016.
Juvenile
Climbing up the tree to a Robin's nest
Caught by S Cormier’s cat and brought to Ojibway Nature Centre
2 adults basking on top of 1.5 m tall stump by roadside. One snake measured 6ft 9in TL.
Recently found original slide and attached scanned image
Surprise! And just when you thought my observations couldn't go any further back in time towards the "Dawn of Herpetology", haha! This is 16 year-old Fingers on his very first field trip to the beautiful Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula of eastern North Carolina - a region I immediately fell in love with for it's awesome swampland vistas and abundantly diverse herpetofauna. "Canebrake" Rattlers are quite common in this area - according to my old field notes taken on that "excellent adventure", we found 8 specimens of these impressive Crotalids in all growth stages over a 3-day weekend, half of them "road hunting" in the early evening. Ah, the "good ol' days"!
Talk about "Old School" - this pic is 40 years "Old", and I was a Senior in High "School", haha! I spotted this nice young "Canebrake" with just it's head sticking out of the roadside weeds in East Lake, North Carolina. That's my best friend/cousin/herpetological colleague "Pete" (@jdanch) skulking in the background - hoping for similar luck!
Another "blast from the past" observation that may help to dispel the theory that my entire youth was "misspent", haha! This is me as a 16 year-old punk-ass "herp-kid" helping out as an intern on a presence/absence survey for this NJ State Endangered species back in 1978. I could barely contain my ego (hmm... still have a little trouble with that!) having "shown up" the professional Field Herpetologists who were my "heroes" and had allowed me to tag along - by finding all the Timbers (4 total) and a beautiful, 36" adult male Copperhead that fine day... well, that was at least until the moment I pulled a 5-foot Northern Black Racer out of a deep crevice by it's tail. That smug, glorious feeling faded away real fast and was replaced with red-faced embarrassment as I heard a distant voice call out - "Hey! Don't hold a Black Racer like that..." as it reared back, did a full "u-turn" in mid-air and bit me hard, smack in the middle of my nose! Bled like a fool for almost a half hour - and all my "big time" pro mentors nearly fell down the rockslide laughing their butts off!!! It all came back and "bit" me again the following Monday, when I showed up at school with my black 'n blue schnozz, with 6 perfect rows of teeth-marks emblazoned right across it! Got my hump busted about it for at least 2 weeks - even by some of my teachers, haha! A few wiseguy kids even wrote stuff like "Good luck, Snakeface", etc. in my yearbook (see additional photos). Still cracks me up!
Heard under boulder as we hiked through area. Stayed nicely hidden away.
AOR juvenile 5 growth lines
Found this specimen a while back and thought it looked really odd for A. americanus (Hence why I photographed it). Coming back to it now with a bit more knowledge I can see it shows structural characteristics more like the Canadian Toad--Two closely-raised ridges between the eyes forming a blunt crest. The wart and colour patterning also look different and give off a slightly different impression.
That being said, I still have little-familiarity with this species. Plus these aren't known from here in Ontario. Looking forward to any thoughts and input
In situ, crossing dirt road
Found curled up on self in garage
Two western fox snakes and one Eastern milk Snake
Found dead on road among mosaic of ag land and forested bluffs. 44.2" in length. Found by LH, photos by MM.
basking adult spotted by Steve Marks
Found in the stomach of a stocked brown trout. Submitting on behalf of someone else. Only 5 salamander species range in the area mudpuppies, spotted salamander, eastern red backed salamander, central newt, and blue spotted salamanders. The lack of apparent gills leads me to central newts. Let me know if you think otherwise
several found by cavities on large tree trunk, near top of ridge by Steve Marks & Paul Pratt
Grey Fox sightings at this location (southern edge of Spring Garden Natural Area) for past two weeks
Gorgeous snake!
A Snapping Turtle fought it to it's death (I watched it.).
Salvaged from large specimen unfortunately road-killed just North of Carabelle. Skull is 5.5" wide X 6.8" long.
Observed crossing sand road in Sand Prairie habitat (see other pics). There is a theory that this is an introduced population, as this species was not recorded in extreme eastern Illinois prior to 1980. Many believe this is not the case, as there are similar natural populations in other counties not far to the West.
Originally observed emerging from a small burrow at the base of a small Wax Myrtle. Collected for data, and released.
"Vintage" photo. New Jersey State Threatened Species.
With Chorus Frogs https://inaturalist.ca/observations/110720950 and Wood Frogs https://inaturalist.ca/observations/110720458
Date is approximate (month and year are correct).
It was a male.
At least 6 young along edge of the garage door.
The date and precise location of my Massasauga bite
Snake skin, maybe impossible to ID from this
RIP Glen Pearce
Salamander "C". This leucistic individual has been photographed by Don Scallen several times since 2010 when it was at least 2 years old at that time making it at least 13 years old this year!
For those following along, this is Buddy. I radio tracked him for 11.25 years.