A Mad Dash To Mingo (continued)

Diamondback Water Snake

Yellowbellied Water Snake

The culvert.

YellowBelly basking on the culvert.

We continued down the road, and a few minutes later Rick was again calling me over, this time to inspect a nice Spotted Salamander, Ambystoma maculatum.  It's always nice to see a Spottie and take its picture.  2002 was a good year in terms of the number of maculatum we found.

The road went down a short slope, and at the bottom a small, muddy ditch crossed under the road through a culvert.  We got to within ten feet of it when I spotted a small serpent coiled in the grass closed to the road. "Here's your Diamondback, Rick!" The Diamondback Water Snake, Nerodia rhombifer, was a new species for Rick, one he had searched for this year but had always seemed to just miss.  The little rhombifer obliged our cameras by remaining just as we had found it while we snapped away at it.  That's one of the benefits of herping in lower temperatures - the critters can be sluggish.

Rick caught the snake so he could have a closer look at it. "It must be cold - it's not biting!"  I was happy for him - now if we could only find a BroadBanded today!

Diamondback close-up.

We released the Diamond back and it slithered towards the ditch.  "Now let's go find some more snakes," I said.  Just as I spoke I looked at the ground and saw another snake, not five feet from the rhombifer!  "Yellowbelly!" I shouted.  It was our old friend from southern Illinois, the Yellowbelly Water Snake, Nerodia erythrogaster flavigaster.  A small one, with just a trace of pattern on the dorsum.  We didn't bother it, aside from taking its picture and enjoying the sight.

A few steps further and we were looking at one end of the culvert, and there was a second flavigaster, slipping through the grass and into the water!  And a third, sunning itself on the warm metal of the culvert pipe!  When it rains it pours, I guess.  I managed to get a picture of the basking flavigaster without disturbing it.

Four water snakes in less than five minutes! We carefully walked the margins of the ditch on that side of the road, but could not scare up any more.  "Time to check out the other side," I said hopefully.