Matt made a nice find near the bottom of the railbed - an adult Eastern Box Turtle, partially tucked away in the leaf litter.  Perhaps this male was newly emerged from winter quarters.  Rare is the occasion when one finds an unattractive Terrapene carolina; each one deserves time for observation and appreciation.  Those of us with Boxies nearby sometimes take them for granted - they are truly beautiful chelonians, prized and coveted by folks in other regions and other countries. This turtle was a nice find for the fellas from up north.

The sky had remained overcast this day, but the cloud cover was thin enough to allow the day to warm up a bit, perhaps close to 60 F.  We had covered something less of a mile in about four hour's time; we were finding a new herp of some sort every few minutes, including a few more opacum, Slimy Salamanders and Ringneck snakes.  Jeff and Jim and Matt were getting a good dose of the rich and diverse herpetofauna of southern Illinois, and I was happy for them.

I managed to turn up an Eft, the land stage of the Central Newt (Notopthalamus viridescens louisianensis).  This little feller wasn't as long as his scientific name.  We started talking about the ill-advised habit of swallowing efts and newts (it has happened, and they are poisonous little critters).  From here the conversation degenerated into a series of one-liner ripoffs from Raiders of the Lost Ark, complete with bad Sallah imitations - "Bad Newts". "Red Efts - veddy dangerous".  You get the picture.  Thank heavens these guys have a sensayuma!

We decided to go a littler farther, down to a wet area with some fallen trees.  This was the place where we found  an interesting water snake last fall - not a Yellowbelly, but perhaps a Copperbelly-Yellowbelly intergrade?  I was hoping we'd find another one for Jeff in particular - Jeff's been working with populations of Copperbellies (Nerodia erythrogaster neglecta) up in eastern Iowa.  I described the finding of the snake last fall; it was under a flat section of log, alongside a Shawnee King.  I grabbed the king snake (mama didn't raise no fool) and left the water snake for Tracey to catch!

We were almost back to that spot when Jim heard the soft rustle of a snake on the move, and then spied a serpent moving through a tangle of logs and debris.  It disappeared under a flat section of log which, when lifted, revealed a Shawnee King and a Copperbelly!  Wait a minute, make that two Copperbellies!  History repeats itself.  Same snake species, same flat section of log!

We all were happy for Jim; he hadn't found any of the big snakes up to this point.  Looks like his run of bad luck was over in one swell foop!  Jim said he was sure it was the Shawnee King he spied, heading under the log.  Imagine his surprise to come up with a handful of water snake!  I, of course, grabbed up the king snake once again...