Herpetofauna: One Life's List

Pantherophis vulpina vulpina
Western Fox Snake

Champaign Co., Illinois.
August 16th, 2003

I was canoeing on Homer lake with my buddy Jeff.    Enjoying the day, enjoying the fine weather and the turtles sunning themselves on half-submerged logs.

We're about thirty feet from shore when I spy a snake swimming from the cattails towards the canoe.  Water snake, I thought.  On it came, directly for us.  Wait a minute, that snake does not look like a Nerodia...it swam right up to me, I put my hand over and plucked a Fox Snake right out of the water.

My first Fox Snake. I live in excellent vulpina habitat, but since I generally go elsewhere to herp, I hadn't seen one yet.  A number of DORs, but not a single live Fox Snake.  On this day the stars and planets must have been aligned perfectly and the snake came to me!