The CHS got a request to look at an area and see if there are any herps around. I have made a few trips to the location previously when I had time but that time did not line up with good weather. Yesterday was the first decent weather that lined up with my available time and we finally found some animals. The first trip out I found a single toad.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P4240655.jpg

A cute little crayfish out making noise.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P4240660.jpg

And 4 leopard frogs that I saw jump into the water but could not get a hand on or a picture of.

Two more trips out there at bad times and bad weather conditions yielded nothing and then yesterday I had decent weather and Lawrence to help. The first thing we found was actually a sound, the sound of calling cricket frogs. There had been heavy rains the night before and the frogs were out claiming their own little stick or mound. We couldn't get one in hand but there were maybe a dozen or more calling all in one opening. We did dip net a bajillion baby crayfish and one single tadpole, we think it is a cricket frog as well but we were not sure since neither of us is particularly good at IDing them.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020684.jpg

Then I spotted a garter that escaped our grasp but soon after that a second that was sleeping on a full belly.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020689.jpg

When we let it go it sat still in the grass so I got a few more shots.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020706.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020721.jpg

Pretty much struck out on cricket frogs (despite being surrounded by them) and anything else in this clearing for another half hour to an hour and then moved on to a second clearing. Both clearing were flooded from the rain the previous night so it effectively cut the habitat in half since half was water.

The area is a "Forest Preserve" type area though it seems to be outside it since there is construction nearby. In the wooded area you can see the ruts from when it was a agricultural field and all the low spots were water and the high spots had animals. Or at least they should have had them. Only spotted a single toad.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020724.jpg

We then headed out of the woods and flipped logs near a pond on the same property and Lawrence found this toad.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020736.jpg

I was really surprised by the lack of any blue spotted salamanders or any salamanders at all for that matter. Also noticeable in their absence was the little woodland snakes like red bellies and brown snakes. Lawrence and I walked along a shallow canal that bordered the property on our way back to our cars where I saw 4 leopard frogs my first visit out and this time we saw 7 but still could not get our hands on a single one.

After that we headed to a different section of woods that was closer to the forest preserve area. This area is only a mile or so from the previous area but on the other side of a waterway and it has red bellies, browns, and garters in abundance in the right spots.

The first area we hit was pretty wet from the rains and the boards that usually produce for me a month from now had nobody home. Lawrence went slopping through the water while I looked on drier land. I did spot this tiny toad.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020744.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020753.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020750.jpg

Despite the photogenic little toad I got bored waiting for Lawrence so I had to bother this little rolly poley haha

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020763.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020765.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020760.jpg

When he finally got back I said we could walk a bit further and see some snakes and since we only saw two all day he was down. We got over to the spot I wanted to hit and Lawrence flipped this little gem.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020773.jpg

I love red bellies and if they got to 3ft long and ate mice I think they would be super popular as pets. Such cool little guys.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020779.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020782.jpg

And here is an older pic that I love that shows just house close to traffic they can live.

This is from the same spot but last summer

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P6138186.jpg

We found another 2-4 of those little guys that where in shed and then Lawrence flipped this little cutie.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P5020786.jpg

All in all not a bad afternoon despite the 20 or so bug bites on my arms from these little flies in the woods. They were like over sized gnats that would get on the backs of my arms and neck and while i didn't feel anything I would have these bloody wounds that are itchy as hell today. No idea what these things are called but they are like the black flies in New England but not as bad.

Gonna make a few more trips out in search of the big game for the area

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P6148271.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Chicagoland/P6148323.jpg

And

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Sauga/P5037977.jpg

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c29/SnakesUnlimited/Sauga/P5037982.jpg

Those two animals are from further south and even though both used to be in this area as recently as 10 years ago, both are likely gone today.

Jason

Looks like aside from the fly bites it was a productive trip! Sucks about not finding the salamanders though.

All in all looks like a pretty good day. Is the rattler a massasauga? I love those guys.

Great pictures and story Jason, some good finds to....

Let me know when you find out what the hell was chewing you up because I got into something on some state lands the other day, some were sand fleas but something else was tearing me up :machinegun:

Looks like a good day to me!

Nice!!!!!!!You sure they were not black flies??????
Damn things suck out here in N.E.:machinegun:

You said they were bigger then gnats?? Around here we have No-see-um's. So tiny you can barely see them at all, but they've got a bite like a shepard!

You said they were bigger then gnats?? Around here we have No-see-um's. So tiny you can barely see them at all, but they've got a bite like a shepard!

We call those chiggers here, things lay eggs in you...hurts for days....damn I hate summer already thinking about those :lmao:

Looks like a great time! The pictures are wonderful!

We call those chiggers here, things lay eggs in you...hurts for days....damn I hate summer already thinking about those :lmao:

These aren't chiggers though... They fly like gnats, and damn if they swarm your best bet is to run in the house quick like bunny!!:lmao:
My aunt has chiggers by her down in OK. I refuse to wear shorts or sandles, and most of the time will actually suffer looking like a dork and bring my socks up over my pants legs (a la 80') to keep em away from my ankles! One time only I got nailed by those, and never wanna go thru that again!:eek:

We call those chiggers here, things lay eggs in you...hurts for days....damn I hate summer already thinking about those :lmao:

No those are not chiggers, no see ums are an evil little creature that I got to deal with in Florida all the time. They are really band in salt marsh areas and I think it is the marines maybe that have a boot camp in the Carolinas on the beach where they are awful. One of my buds told me about having to stand at attention at dusk (the worst time for them) and having them eat him alive. The bonus of them is no after bite issues.

The flies I ran into left nasty welts that are driving me nuts sorta like chiggers do a day later. They are not black flies or if they are they are the wussie little cousin of the New England ones. Black flies in New England love the back of your ears and they make me and my mom swell up really bad.

One thing that may not be clear the way I wrote it is that the Kirtland's (3 and 4 from the bottom) and the Massasagua (last 2) are from two different trips from last year far from where I was at yesterday. I think they are extirpated from this area. What is really sad is the type locality for the Kirtland's snake is a matter of minutes from this location and the saguas had a reasonably strong population as recently as 10-12 years ago and they are just about gone if not completely gone due to lack of management. I spoke with one guy who made recommendations to the state 10-12 years ago for habitat restoration in the region at many different localities and the state did nothing or next to nothing for years.

Only recently have they made one private company clear one area of invasive plants as part of mitigation for work they are doing but the spot has either no animals or a population so small that it is a ghost population at best. So very frustrating. Oh, and one a-hole from the local parks division not only gave out locality data for saguas in the newspaper a couple years back but also went on to say that he hoped that none were found in a survey being done because he wanted to get permission to build a boardwalk in sensitive habitat... :dunno: :machinegun:

Jason

No those are not chiggers, no see ums are an evil little creature that I got to deal with in Florida all the time. They are really band in salt marsh areas and I think it is the marines maybe that have a boot camp in the Carolinas on the beach where they are awful. One of my buds told me about having to stand at attention at dusk (the worst time for them) and having them eat him alive. The bonus of them is no after bite issues.


Oh, and one a-hole from the local parks division not only gave out locality data for saguas in the newspaper a couple years back but also went on to say that he hoped that none were found in a survey being done because he wanted to get permission to build a boardwalk in sensitive habitat... :dunno: :machinegun:

Jason

Can't even imagine having to stand there and take them, that's awful!!

Sounds to me like somebody that really needed to lose his job, that's a jerk move there.:mad::mad:

Can't even imagine having to stand there and take them, that's awful!!

Sounds to me like somebody that really needed to lose his job, that's a jerk move there.:mad::mad:

All a part of the training.......no sissies allowed....:lol:

Cool herp finds and chiggers suck...use to have to wear long sleeves & jeans and tape around ankles and wrists when out with my grandma in arkansas.

All a part of the training.......no sissies allowed....:lol:

:yessir::yessir:

Nice finds.:yes:

No wonder you only found one tad, and no frogs, look at that fat happy snake!!! Atratus???

Nice trip! Even love the pics of the little roly-poly!

Don't know what bugs you have out there. We have gnats here that are small and black a pack a HUGE bite. You darn near see flying FANGS coming at you! LOL!!! We get greenhead flies that leave big bloody wounds, and you'd know if that's what was biting you. BUGS are the only thing I don't like about summer!

:)

Don't forget pine flies. mosquitoes and those fighter plane looking things that are insane. Great pics if you ever want bugs picks come to Tomes River with a west wind I can set you up right on the other side of the dunes. Millions of photo ops LOL.
Gary

Look like a great outing to me.....not lame....:yessir:

Look like a great outing to me.....not lame....:yessir:

Thanks Frank, since we have very little diversity near the city (this was in the same county as Chicago) it is a little hard to have "cool" things but I take what I can get. Some other spots in the county have some salamanders(tigers, spotted, blue spots), couple other frogs, fox snakes, eastern milks, smooth greens, and the maybe still around saguas and Kirtlands. So the diversity at this spot is poor. Since I am a snake guy I get a little grouchy when I only see a couple but like I said I love the red bellies and the smooth greens from the other post so those keep me happy. A saugua would be amazing in Chicagoland and that is the target ever trip. :yes:

Jason