I was able to make it out to a few different areas down here in southern Illinois the past few days. I have no pictures to show right now, but IÂll try to post a few soon. On Saturday I went down to Snake Road with the Zoology Club, although another guy and me were off on our own for most of the time. As we were on our way back to the car, a man asked us if we could identify a snake for him. In his hands was one of my target species, the Mississippi Green Water Snake! This had made my day! It was also nice to meet a few other forum members. The totals for us two:

6 Western Cottonmouths

Smooth Earth Snake

Eastern Garter Snake

Yellowbelly Water Snake

Mississippi Green Water Snake (lifer)

3 Eastern Newts

BlanchardÂs Cricket Frogs

Southern Leopard Frogs

Dwarf American Toad

On Monday, my parents came down from St. Louis and we visited an area in Johnson County. My target for the day was a Marbled Salamander. First, as we were walking along the trail, I stopped to look around in a swampy area to our left, and spotted a little Green Tree Frog clinging onto a very small tree. This was a lifer for me, believe it or not! Later on, we decided to walk down some railroad tracks. I started flipping all kinds of ground cover, hoping to find the Marbled Salamander. One of the railroad ties I lifted a little farther down the tracks produced another lifer for me, a Mole Salamander! This was a very exciting find for me, but I was still waiting for that Marbled to turn up. We later came to an area that looked perfect. It was easy to see that the forest would fill with lots of water in the spring. I began flipping like crazy, placing everything back the way it was, and still no Marbleds! As I bent down to lift a log, I noticed a small black snake laying out in the grass, and saw that it was my first Black Kingsnake! It looked to be pretty young. I grabbed it, wanting to show my parents who were a lot farther down the tracks by now, and carried it along with me as I continued searching for salamanders. Finally, after a long dayÂs work, I turned a small log over, and underneath was a beautiful Marbled Salamander! I carefully picked it up, and then ran down the tracks to show my parents with the kingsnake in one hand and the salamander in another! I only had one picture left on my camera, so I got a shot of them both, which didnÂt turn out great, but I didnÂt care, my day was a success! The totals:

3 Western Cottonmouths

Mississippi Ringneck Snake

Black Kingsnake (lifer)

Five-Lined Skinks

Ground Skink

Mole Salamander (lifer)

Marbled Salamander (lifer)

Northern Slimy Salamander

Cave Salamander

2 Eastern Newts

Green Tree Frog (lifer)

Southern Leopard Frogs

Green Frog

BlanchardÂs Cricket Frogs

I had a great weekend overall with five lifers! I enjoyed meeting others and it was also nice to see my parents! Hopefully everyone else had a good weekend too!