Iowa Herping (Steve's Weekend)

[guidofatherof5]

It's been an unbelievable two days for me. It started out Sat. morning with a trip to Des Moines. I got to hold a very docile Copperhead. She's very old and failing fast. Her head was in her hide and I was able to hold the back half. My first experience with a hot.
Then in the evening I was able to get up close and personal with a number of very large snapping turtles. They averages 60 lbs each. At first they resisted my hands on them but quickly figured out everything was OK. One big male allowed me to give him a neck massage and a chin rub. This was all done from a back position. None of these Common Snappers(Chelydra serpentina) were aggressive as long as I stayed away from the front of their faces. It was quite an experience. I found that watching their eyes was a good indicator of their intentions. At first they were nervous but quickly calmed and seemed to enjoy the attention. I did meet one male that was a true predator. He was sizing up the situation at every moment and would launch a bit with lightning speed. I didn't attempt to work with him and he did come very close to grabbing my arm. I think some was food motivated but I think much was territorial.
This morning it was off to find some T.s.parietalis and hopefully some Timber Rattle Snakes. No T.s.p's were found but I did get some awesome photos of baby Timbers and some beautiful Milk snakes. I will be getting the photos and video ready and post it in the next couple of days.

[guidofatherof5]

Here are some photos.
This Milk snake was clearly in opaque phase.


These Timber Rattle snake were found by their Hibernacle.
This is a young one.


Same snake after we pulled it out. It wasn't very happy but allowed some good photos to be taken.


Here's a little bigger one. It was very curious about us.

[kibakiba]

Awesome pictures, Steve! That sounds like a lot of fun

[ConcinusMan]

Awesome! it does sound like my kind of weekend. I noticed that even in the opaque phase, that milk is still quite red. Very nice.

If you had brought along some mice like a good human, perhaps one or both of those rattlers would have come out voluntarily to eat.

That first one does look very annoyed.

[guidofatherof5]

Awesome! it does sound like my kind of weekend. I noticed that even in the opaque phase, that milk is still quite red. Very nice.

The other Milk snake was very colorful. I'll have to get the photo off the other camera.

[infernalis]

Awesome Steve....

[ConcinusMan]

Please do. I have a thing for them, ever since I was a kid and eventually I want to own an eastern milk that stays red into adulthood.

But hey, I just thought of something. I'm pretty sure milk snakes tend to stay red in Kansas and perhaps Iowa too. More so than in the eastern states.

[guidofatherof5]

Here's one video from some snapping turtle time.


Here's another of these awesome turtles. Most of these turtles were rescued from turtle butcheries throughout the U.S. My friend Mark has a great passion for these wonderful animals and I admire his efforts to save them. I also admire his wife for letting him have them.
No, he doesn't use his turtles as serving tables. The Cool Whip container was there for scaling purposes

[infernalis]

Steve, why does it look so green?

[guidofatherof5]

Steve, why does it look so green?

Mercury vapor light treatment while his water was being drained. It really brings out the green in the algae.