Chicago Nature Blog
Opportunistic herpetological & natural history musings from Chicago and beyond
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Toads of Meadow Wood
Thursday, August 7, 2025
Unpopular Opinions: Rapidfire
1) Those tasked with disseminating information about local nature & natural history in 2025 - nature center staff, interpretive naturalists, and especially social media content creators - are very often poorly informed on their topics (especially herps). Their keen ability to engage with the public belies a lack of accurate knowledge or experience. Why is this a problem? Because the public is largely ignorant of these kinds of things. And when they visit a nature center, or subscribe to a conservation organization's social media account, they trust that whatever they are being told is factual.
In fact, those qualified to educate others are the people who work in dusty museum basements. The ones that obsess over their work. The ones that are passionate. Alas, these people are not suited for educating in today's rapid-fire world of interpretive Instagram posts backed by hip hop music.2) The abundance of spent mylar balloons littering the woods is a major distraction to actual serious environmental issues such as stream bank erosion and invasive species.
Americans have been raised to adulthood not knowing what a healthy woodland looks like, or what a healthy river looks like. We see a forest preserve full of plants and a stream running through it and nod in approval. In reality, our rivers take on far too much runoff and sedimentation devastates biodiversity.
Our woodlands have been infested with nonnative honeysuckle and buckthorn for over a century. Our marshes have been infested with Phragmites, reed canary grass, and many more for decades. We have some historical context of what constitutes a healthy ecosystem but most are ignorant about it.
Of course, if you were to ask me what the biggest contributor to environmental collapse is, it's consumerism. But that's not a novel viewpoint. Just an inconvenient one.
3) Herpetology podcasts - most of them are awful. I spend a fair deal of time in my car and I often enjoy listening to podcasts. There are a handful of good herp-themed podcasts out there (Snake Talk, So Much Pingle, Colubrid & Colubrid Radio), but most are insufferable.
Here's some ideas for improvement: Learn to edit out long, drawn out periods of silence and bouts of connection issues. Introduce your guests or allow them to introduce themselves. Not everyone is in your circle...and by the way, the whole idea of podcasters interviewing podcasters over and over and over is annoying and imparts a cliquey vibe. Certainly there are more people out there into this stuff? Finally, if you expect subscriptions and sponsors, sound enthusiastic. Some of these long-time hosts sound straight-up burnt out. Take a break and come back in a month or a year or never.
4) Not everyone needs to convert their entire lawns to vegetable gardens or tallgrass prairies. Don't guilt-trip others for having turf grass, especially if you also have turf grass. There are a LOT of hypocrites out there with nothing else better to do with their time.
5) Domestic cats belong indoors. Period. Yes, they kill a substantial amount of wildlife. No, they are not a one-to-one replacement for predators we've eradicated. If you are fine with cats exposed to predation, disease, vehicles, and harsh elements, you are objectively careless.
6) The politicization of conservation will be the downfall of conservation just as the politicization of nearly anything solves nothing.
7) Americans are very tribalistic. We want validation from others in our groups (even when we are wrong) and will go to great lengths for it, often looking very stupid in the process.
8) If you purchase a product solely because the packaging sports some sort of little green leaf logo indicating "environmental friendliness", you are most likely misled. The little green leaf means nothing. Maybe it used to, but once marketing firms found that the green leaf bolsters sales from the crunchy sector, companies began applying it to anything and everything. Yesterday, I saw a package of balloons with the logo. We fall for that stuff a lot.
Saturday, July 19, 2025
Slightly Off-Topic: Cornflake the Corn Snake
I often credit the plains garter snake for my love of snakes, and that largely holds true. But there was one particular snake that expanded my understanding of snakes and represented a gateway to the multitude of snakes that lived beyond the streets of Chicago. I think it's about time to memorialize this animal.
As usual, I like to provide some backstory. In the early nineties, I befriended a neighborhood boy who had recently moved to Chicago from northwestern Georgia. He was an outdoors type, like I was, but came from a place very different from the city and his range of outdoors activities far surpassed mine. In his bedroom stood a chest of drawers topped by a ten-gallon aquarium, and in that aquarium lived what he called an "Egyptian ratsnake" (I would much later come to understand that this was a diadem ratsnake (Spalerosophis diadema). It was often coiled tightly on the green astroturf, next to its hot rock. Every time I'd go to my friend's house, I would gravitate toward this snake. I spent a lot of time looking at and holding it. Then a few months later, it was gone and in its place was a hatchling California kingsnake. That one didn't last long for one reason or another, and it was swiftly replaced by an adult "Florida corn snake".
I was extremely fascinated by this corn snake. It was about four feet long and clad in earthy oranges and browns with a black and white checkerboard belly. In the absence of a hide, it too spent its days coiled atop the Astroturf next to the hot rock. And I don't believe a day went by when I didn't take it out to handle it. The only attention it received from my friend was during feeding time. My friend fed it live mice, and the snake would almost immediately strike and constrict the mouse until it was dead. Then it swallowed the mouse whole. This was all new to me, since the garters at my house were fed worms and minnows and simply grabbed and swallowed them alive.
I know this probably sounds weird to many people, but I noticed that the corn snake not only felt different than the garters, but it smelled different too. It's tough to describe, but it's a clean smell. I call it the "corn snake smell". I notice that all corn snakes smell exactly the same - even slightly distinct from other members of its genus such as grey ratsnakes.
After about a year or two, my friend's family returned to Georgia. My friend gifted me the corn snake before he left, knowing it would be in good hands. This was shortly after my parents separated, so the timing was serendipitous. My dad never allowed any snakes in the house - not even my garters. Those had to be kept in terrariums on our patio table, underneath an awning. Now I had a legit collection - garters and a corn snake - in my modest bedroom (thanks, mom).
Keeping a four-foot snake in a twenty-inch enclosure didn't feel right. One day, my mom drove me to Pet Supplies Plus where she bought me a forty gallon "breeder" terrarium. I also selected a large bag of fir bark chips to replace the lousy and unsightly artificial turf. To this day, I can never smell this kind of bark and not be whisked away to my first corn snake enclosure. The huge new enclosure took up every inch of desk space, giving me another reason to avoid doing my homework.
Sometimes we called him "Cornflake the corn snake", but I don't think he ever had an official name (I wasn't into naming herps). He was with me the first time I ever presented about snakes to an audience, when I was in the eighth grade. I remember having to get permission from my principal to bring a snake into the school, and I was happy when permission was granted. The principal stood by the door while I held the snake and talked to my class; the talk was so well-received that I was asked to do the same presentation for two other grades. Skip class and talk about snakes? A no-brainer.
My family moved to a new house in the late summer of 1996, and therefore so did my corn snake (and a few others I had acquired since). In 1997, I bought a second corn snake, an adult amelanistic female, with the intent on breeding the snakes. I was a few years deep into Reptiles magazine, had devoured every single book on snakes I could find, and felt like I was ready to take this next step. After some cycling and conditioning, I introduced my male corn snake to the female in the spring of 1998, and a couple of months later, had eggs which in turn hatched later that summer. There is an interesting story related to that process, but at the risk of deviating too far from the main subject, I digress.
Around the time my corn snake became a father, he began showing signs of failing health. He became increasingly lethargic and accepted food only sporadically, losing weight. Looking back, I should have addressed his condition with more urgency, but I was pretty enamored with this beautiful batch of baby corn snakes for the first time in my life, as well as getting the adult female back in shape after oviposition. When I see photos of him from 1998, I'm overcome with a feeling of guilt, even though his condition may have been untreatable. He died in early 1999.
In the coming years, I'd work with countless other snakes, even though my primary interests revolved around the natural history of wild snakes (and still do). But the lasting effects of owning and caring for my first corn snake are undeniable. I hope, somewhere out there, his progeny are inspiring other kids the way he inspired me.
Friday, July 11, 2025
Slightly Off-Topic: Milksnake in the Alley
Eight years later, the snake is still with us, living out its rather luxurious life along with a few other snakes in the house. Rehoming didn't make much sense - the story is too wild.
Sunday, June 29, 2025
The Clayoquot Sound: Thamnophis in the Mist
As I sit here to begin drafting my summary of a trip to Vancouver Island (British Columbia) less than 20 hours after returning, it is a steady ninety degrees outside here in northwestern DuPage County. That's about forty degrees warmer than what was experienced as we hunkered down along the southern periphery of the Clayoquot Sound near Tofino over the previous week. So as I re-adjust to changing conditions, I'll try my best to accurately recall the feelings and emotions that I felt as we traveled throughout this amazing place.
Long ago, I became fascinated by the island's rugged beauty and indigenous roots. It's not really on a lot of people's "must-see" lists, but it's been on mine for some time. Naturally, it's a place of boreal landscapes, picturesque river valleys and biodiverse coastal waters. It is depauperate in herpetofauna, but the species that do make their homes there have found ways to tough out the region's unforgiving climate. In particular, the island's four snake species - three garters and one sharp-tailed snake - have proven to impress with their abilities to not only survive but thrive in the cool and often cloudy and windy environment.
I really wanted to find a northwestern garter snake (Thamnophis ordinoides) while there. I had never seen one in the wild and its subtle beauty usually stops me in my tracks. Yes - I also like the gaudy paintjobs of other western garters, but I'm weird in that I REALLY like snakes that most others consider ugly or drab. It's unrelated to my support for the underdogs. It's that I can stare at a brown or gray snake for a long time and admire it for what it is, never once considering it "dull".
This was a family vacation, so most of my herping would be incidental. And that was fine by me, since the forests were captivating and the indigenous influence is alive and strong. Three groups of First Nations people live throughout the sound. Near Tofino, it is the Tla-o-qui-aht people, who have been in the region for thousands of years. Many operate businesses in Tofino, such as tour companies (foreshadowing). I learned much about the history of the Tla-o-qui-aht and viewed everything through the lens of a visitor from afar privileged to even step foot here.
We flew into Victoria from Seattle and drove nearly five hours to our cabin near Tofino. The only reasonable way to do this is by taking the Alberni Highway (BC-4), which provides stunning views of the mountains and rivers. We stopped at the Kennedy River Rest Stop to take in the views of the crystal clear, sparkling clean & frigid waters of the river. We also found our first of many salmonberry plants here. These attractive berries are abundant and variable in taste; they range from remarkably delicious to worthy of spitting out, regardless of ripeness. So eating these was always an adventure.

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Back in Tofino, we returned to the same park I found the sirtalis in the day before. Yes, I was hungry.