2021 was a year stalled by covid-19. Despite the "inconveniences" (I'm putting that in quotation because I'm not ignorant to how lucky I am that my family and I have been afforded some flexibility in our schedules - and we've stayed pretty healthy), it was a great year. Since I allocate virtually all of my writing time for another project in the works, I've only contributed to this occasionally. In 2021, I posted three times - and each was a summary of some trip far away from northeastern IL. There were some local excursions, though not as many as in previous years - and not as many as I wish. But once again, I blame stupid covid. Also I honestly don't think many actually find this blog and read it. My stats show a smattering of views, but nothing substantial. And that's fine because a big part of this is for me to look back on as a sort of digital photo album.
So without further ado, here's a photo summary of my (mostly) herp-related 2021.
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So cheating a bit, here is a murky photo from an evening in mid-December 2020, when Matt, Nathan, and I met up in downtown Wilmington to look for mudpuppies (Necturus maculosus) in the Kankakee River. We worked the area just below the dam, where I learned drowning happens with some regularity. The river is unpredictable in this area, and one slip in the frigid water is all it would take to be pulled under the turbulence created by the dam. I was told we had been lucky the local law enforcement hadn't been patrolling the area because had we been seen, we would have been shamed and ticketed. Also, we didn't see any mudpuppies. But we tried.
 And approximately 10% of the frogs heard were Illinois chorus frogs. This is a species with some odd and unique habits, which include a fossorial lifestyle and a digging method which involves digging with the front feet (as opposed to the rear legs as with most other frogs).
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Here, you can see thousands of Ambystomatid eggs - mostly from A. laterale as well as some polyploids. Of course, spotted salamander eggs are in the mix as well.
Our first live garter snake was found at West Branch. Many snakes evade the sweeping fires by remaining underground. This was one of those.
The following weekend, a long hike through a nearby preserve produced this adult male eastern garter. Lumen likes to say, "It's ok, little guy."
By mid-April, the local smooth green snakes (Opheodrys vernalis) were surface active. Smooth green snakes are quickly disappearing in northern Illinois as their habitat is destroyed and as people continue using pesticides. Fortunately, there are a few decent populations near me, and most of those appear to be stable.
The smooth green snake is a gorgeous animal, but once in a while you run into something a little different. This is a "buff phase" smooth green snake, an uncommon variant wherein the vibrant green color is replaced by a sort of light brown. Maybe not as attractive as the normal green snakes, it is nonetheless exciting to see.
Ok hopefully the last cheat of the post - a day trip down to Cass and Morgan Counties with Tom to fill in some county gaps took place on April 27th. The day was seasonably HOT - temperatures in the mid-80s meant lots of herp and sadly lots of DORs. We spent the better part of the day scouring the banks of the Illinois River as well as some abandoned lots and fields for herp data. This part of Illinois is often known as Forgotonia, referring to the lack of funding and overall attention the region receives from the state. It also suffers from a lack of attention from field herpers and professional herpetologists. Well, this is where we step in! Pictured is a county record western ribbon snake (Thamnophis proximus).
A view from above an old, melanistic red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta) found crossing the road.
My steadily growing interest in the distribution of the five-lined skink (Plestiodon fasciatus) in northeastern Illinois led to a number of field outings with hopes that I could improve my grasp on the subject. Fortunately, I’m not the only one fascinated by these striped speedsters. When I finally got a chance to look for them on Chicago’s south side, Tom tagged along and we both hoped to witness what a number of local residents were seeing in and around their own backyards. We searched a powerline cut strewn with trash as well as an adjacent abandoned lot and ended up finding a piece of shed lizard skin. Then, one of the residents I had previously contacted about the skinks, who lives along the cut, allowed us into her backyard where she often sees the skinks. The yard and alley looks like prime habitat, but even though Tom and I searched in and around woodpiles and stacked boards and tall grassy clumps, we came up empty. We then searched a very trashy urban backroad along the margin of a lake, where we found dozens of garter snakes of both species but no lizards. However, a short drive later, we did find two or three skinks (and captured one) among the ruins of a long-shuttered factory. We also found lots of plains garter snakes (Thamnophis radix), a brown snake (Storeria dekayi), and some toads (Anaxyrus americanus) here. The skink Tom managed to capture was deposited into the collection of the Illinois Natural History Survey, where it represents only a third of the recent records of the species in the county.
When you read about the kinds of places you can find urban gartersnakes in old books, THIS is exactly what they are talking about.
Tom with the one skink we (he) managed to catch. The skinks are extremely fast and hard to catch. We lucked out and found this one under a piece of discarded wood.
The following weekend, my daughter and I had an absolute field day looking for queensnakes (Regina septemvittata) near our home in DuPage County. At a locale where I had previously only found one queensnake in several attempts, this time we found nearly a dozen animals of all size classes. Most of them were found as they were foraging for food along the rocks. Most were left unbothered but we did catch a few; these snakes are wonderful in the sense that they never bite and that makes them excellent targets for kids learning the ropes. Lumen loved looking for the queensnakes, but after seeing me get bitten by a northern watersnake (Nerodia sipedon), she wanted nothing to do with the snakes with the dark spots. Our activities attracted the attention of a group of young boys who slowly warmed up to the idea of finding snakes, especially once they watched a not-quite-five-year-old girl holding them. I’m glad the kids were respectful and not the “kill everything you see” type.
Just one of about ten queensnakes we caught that afternoon.
The kids who joined in caught a few snakes themselves - most I think were snakes I had already accounted for. But any time I can provide a positive experience to kids like these, I'll try to. Often, these kinds of moments are instrumental in shaping the way people view snakes.
The next day, I met up with Joel Greenberg and his wife to herp the sand region of southern Will County and a bit of nearby Kankakee County. Now mind you, I’m star struck every time I see the guy. He has authored some incredible books, but the one that has inspired my own writing quite a bit is A Natural History of the Chicago Region. It is an absolute treasure, a tome of epic proportions. So when he asked me if we could go herping during prime birding season (he is most known for his love of birds), I was dumbing out. YAS. Let’s go! But…much to our misfortune, we mostly struck out on herps in the sand areas. Not far away, I was able to catch a couple of southern two-lined salamanders (Eurycea cirrigera) to show him, which was great as he had never seen this species before. And of course we talked a lot and overall had a wonderful time. There are few things in life I love more than kindred spirits - the kinds of people who keep that fire going in my soul.
A couple of pesky electrical poles in the distance are all that keep this view from being about as pure as you can get in northeastern Illinois.
If that wasn’t great enough, THE highlight of my year occurred the very next day. It was a Monday, and I knew I had to run to the local post office after work. I brought my daughter with me, and after our stop at the post office, we decided to swing by the local preserve I had only been to maybe once before. We walked along a fishing lake and I noticed an area where a storm drain emptied into a sort of landscaped “canyon”, sending stormwater through a series of streams and marshes before emptying into the lake. Down at the bottom, we noticed a few bigger bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana). My daughter told me she wanted to catch one. I smiled and knelt down and explained to her that these are big, strong frogs that are not easy to catch. I admired her confidence, though. I started to walk away when I looked back and watched her scale down into the canyon. At this point I knew there was nothing I could do to stop her. I watched as she skillfully approached a frog, taking soft steps and hunching low. Once she was within reach, the frog plopped into the water, but it underestimated the distance it would need to remain safe. In a second, my daughter thrust her hands into the muddy water and produced the frog! I stood there, dumbfounded. In her first ever attempt at a solo frog catch, she succeeded in catching a *healthy* (no slow sickly frogs here) representative of the largest frog in the United States. My smile was as big as hers as I took photos and congratulated her.
Granted, I had no herpetological sensei when I was that age, but still, I don’t think I hand-caught my first big bullfrog until I was well past 5 years of age. To this day we talk about how awesome it was that she was able to catch the frog. These are the little things people like me really cherish.
In mid June, my daughter and I met up with Matt and his kids again to do some creekwalking. This is a creek Matt spent a lot of time in when he was younger, and he knows the fauna well. When we met up the year before to do this, I was impressed with the mussel diversity. Lots of threatened and endangered species as well as most of the common ones, and of course cool fish and herps. This time was no different, except that the water was deeper and more turbid. We still found lots of really cool critters in and around the stream.
The nest of a creek chub (or stoneroller? Not sure).
The gang
Some quality family time as we explored a hidden creek in some woods near Geneva.
An example of carrion flower (Smilax ecirrhata) found near the creek.
During the first weekend of July, Matt told me he was made aware of a site near Dekalb where skinks were seen and he suggested we should go and look for them. I brought my daughter along and he brought his kids and we spent a few hours, in all likelihood trespassing, looking for skinks. The site is some sort of outdoor storage site for building materials and construction equipment, and it is located along some grassy railroad tracks. Matt’s son Alan spotted two skinks as they darted away and out of reach, so we know they are there, we just have nothing to show for it. My daughter had a great time catching toad tadpoles in a big puddle and even an adult toad or two. I was very surprised that not one snake was found - the place was textbook northern Illinois snake habitat.
Later in the month, Anthony, an old friend of mine from both high school and our pet store working days, invited my family to his family’s property in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin. Anthony, his wife and two kids, plus myself, wife and daughter, had an unforgettable time at and on the lake. Anthony and I are similar in that although we are both adults, we never shed one ounce of the youthful excitement that comes with catching frogs, snakes, and turtles. And it showed that day, as we combined to catch one northern watersnake, two painted turtles (Chrysemys picta), one northern map turtle (Graptemys geographica), plus countless bullfrogs and green frogs (Rana clamitans) as well as some bycatch (small fish, etc). We cruised on the lake in his dad’s boat and had lunch at the house. It was, as my wife put it, the perfect summer day.
John, a friend of mine who lives a short drive from my work, told me that a population of the federally endangered rusty-patched bumblebee (Bombus affinis) is found near his home and that he gets lots of the bees in his backyard (which he has landscaped with lots of native wildflowers). I dropped by to photograph some of the bees, but the results leave a lot to be desired. It was a lot of fun seeing the bees and talking with John about his property.
An eastern gartersnake with a sizable food baby found in a weedy pile of concrete rubble near the edge of a park in Warrenville.
Fishing trips always turn into herping trips. While fishing at the same lake where my daughter caught her first bullfrog, my wife spotted a large female eastern gartersnake being pursued by a pair of male suitors. The males were so hardwired to mate that they virtually ignored me and didn’t even defend themselves when handled - they had only one thing on their minds!
A completely new site for me was a postage-stamp sized wooded preserve amid a corn desert. I visited a few times, happy to see that cricket frogs (Acris blanchardi) are doing well here. Cricket frogs are another strong interest of mine, especially as I find more and more sites (mostly small, isolated preserves) that support them throughout Kane and Kendall Counties.
In early October, we spent a couple nights in Galena (cheating one last time I swear!).
We can end this post looking back at my 40th birthday, December 15th. I visited with the Kankakee County Historical Society, and then hiked around the nearby state park. It began mild but quickly turned cold, overcast, and windy. But it was a great day, and a fitting cap to my fourth decade of life. I don't plan on slowing down soon!
