Spring and Summer Snakes in Nj and Pa

I have had a busy summer and have not yet gotten to posting about all the herping I did this spring, and so far this summer.

In mid April I started to see my first snakes. While taking a trip to a near by swamp, the sun and warmer weather drew some snakes out of hibernation. I found an adult  ribbon snake a garter snake. This spot would later produce many more ribbon snakes as the weather got warmer. It had never been this easy for me to find ribbon snakes.

 Eastern Ribbon Snake

(Thamnophis s. sauritus)

Spotted and painted turtles began to appear in the pons and swamps near my house. I got lucky and was able to find two spotted turtles on on trip.

 Eastern Painted Turtle

(Chrysemys picta)

Spotted Turtle

(Clemmys Guttata)

In May, I found several snakes. Here are two smaller snakes found under debris in the woods near my home.

 Norther Brown Snake

(Storia Dekayi)

Northern Ring Neck Snake

(Diadophis punctatus)

Later in the month, I took a trip up to the mountains.

Most of  the herp species found were relatively common. These included eastern newts, garter snakes, american toads, two lined salamanders, five lined skink, and this mountain dusky salamander:

Northern Dusky Salamander

While hiking along a trail through a dark old growth forest, I looked up and there along the edge of the trail in a patch of sunlight, was my lifer timber rattle snake. It was such a pleasant surprise to find one in what seemed like the wrong habitat. The snake did not even rattle, he just continued in the direction he was going.

Timber Rattle Snake

(Crotalis Horridus)

Closer to home, I heard rumors of racers inhabiting a near by field. In order to find one of these snakes, I played out several boards of plywood in the early spring, to flip later in the year. Sure enough, one of the boards produced a young racer in June.

Black Racer

(Coluber Constrictor)

Road cruised the swamp one night during a humid rainy night and found breeding gray tree frogs and cricket frogs.

Gray Tree Frog

(Hyla Versicolor)

Early in summer break, managed to get in a quick stop at the pine barrens, as my family went to the beach. We saw plenty of terrapins and fowlers toads, and I was unable to catch a racer as it flew across the sand road in front of our car.

 Diamond Backed Terrapin

(Malaclemys terrapin)

 Fowlers Toad

(Bufo Fowleri)

 Red Winged Black Bird

My most recent trip was a trip to my favorite snake spot in Pennsylvania. I was hoping to find a copperhead and possibly a rat snake. There were scattered showers throughout the day, which was not ideal weather for snakes, but a few snakes were out basking. First was a larger garter snake.

Eastern Garter Snake

(Thamnophis sirtalis)

Soon we found several black rat snakes sunning themselves on rocky slopes.

Black Rat Snake

(Pantherophis alleghaniensis)

One rat snake I found walking a shale bank. It was wondering along the cliff and it was found in that typical squiggly formation they do. The snake quickly got defensive once touched.

Black Rat Snake

(Pantherophis alleghaniensis)

More posts will be coming throughout the next months. The posts will probably not be as general and long term as this.