The last of the Illinois swamp rattlers

 Back in April, I was invited to assist University of Illinois researchers in searching for eastern massasauga rattlesnakes down in Clinton County (IL) for continued demography research.  Never in a million years did I ever think I'd get the opportunity to see one of these incredible animals in Illinois - not just because they are exceedingly rare but because those in charge of managing the population are understandably tight-lipped about location specifics and whatnot.  I was legitimately geeking out.  My sole experience with a "wild" Illinois massasauga previous to this entailed seeing a recently-caught captive at the Grove when I was a kid back in the late 80s or early 90s (in fact there may have been two animals in the same enclosure but my memories are a bit fuzzy).  That one was one of the last of the Cook County ratters.

Two weeks later I was down at the research base and tech housing with a couple of other invitees, meeting all of the young researchers and getting prepped to hit the fields.  What struck me most was just how little habitat these snakes have available to them.  Years ago when there were multiple massasauga populations in the state, the Clinton County population was regarded as the best.  But that's relative to populations that were so small and threatened that they consequently disappeared.  In Clinton County, the population has been widely split apart into mini-populations by roads, agricultural fields, and a big lake.  In fact it was stunning to know that these animals could persist in these tiny shards of habitat.  

Carefully transecting the first locale, we all stepped very gingerly, keeping our eyes peeled for massasaugas as they emerged from the crayfish burrows they utilized to bask in the late morning sun.  At this time of year, the vegetation consisted mostly of dried prairie grasses, sometimes in thick clusters.  A few bits of greenery were poking through, including rattlesnake master.  We were all spread apart (as spread apart as we could be at such a small site) when one of the techs announced that he had found a massasauga.  Everyone made their way over - the other techs in a careful and deliberate fashion, and me nearly tripping and falling into the mud.  I was ecstatic.  When I reached the tech, he pointed down at the snake.  

I didn't see it.

Scanning the tangled mass of dried grasses below me, I thought and may have even asked out loud, "Where?"  The tech pointed his snake hook down in the direction of the snake.  A few more seconds of looking, and...THERE IT IS!  Barely visible was a two to three inch section of massasauga showing through the dried brown grass.  The tech was good.  I would have walked right over it, I think.  I now had the picture etched in my head to improve my approach at finding massasaugas.  This first snake was carefully collected for processing at a later time.

There is a massasauga here

Convening at a sauga spotting

Not long later, another massasauga - a large adult female.   A healthy, husky animal, coiled on a raised berm in the dappled sunlight.  It was stunning.  In the frontier years, this animal would have been killed immediately.  Now, one of a very few left in the state, it was being handled very carefully.  A minute or two later, and an announcement that an eastern box turtle was caught rang out.  And maybe ten minutes later, I passed a tech double-fisting box turtles.  I guess this was a good site for those too!  As it turns out, box turtle research is also occurring here so these too were collected for processing before being released on-site.

Large female

Young adult female boxie

Later, we moved on to another site nearby.  This second site was decidedly more "remote" and difficult to access, and it supplied us with even more massasaugas.  The first or second snake found here turned out to be especially light colored and clean, perhaps freshly shed.  It was the only snake I saw in situ here, as the others were found as I was off on the other end of the field, searching.  I did stumble upon a couple of box turtles and a bald eagle skull (no, I did not take it).  I ended up losing contact with the others until I wandered toward the sounds of a pair of techs chatting.  A few hours later, we convened at the rendezvous spot and moved on to the final location, which was located very close to a busy public park.  It seemed doubtful that a rattlesnake could find peace in a place like this, and as it turns out very few are actually documented here.  One of the last ones seen here was killed by a park goer a few years prior.  Yet we did find a couple more box turtles here, before heading back to our vehicles and then to base.

An easier in situ massasauga 

A particularly light colored animal, in situ

In situ box turtle

In-hand

Another box turtle

The real work took place back at the base.  As part of the ongoing study, each massasauga is PIT-tagged, measured, and swabbed for possible Ophidiomyces infection (snake fungal disease).  There were eight snakes total!  Not a bad day for 2022.

A Fowler's toad at base camp

Two techs measure a massasauga's length

Measuring a box turtle

Implanting a PIT tag

It is an atrocity that these beautiful animals are mostly gone.

I'll be completely honest in saying that the entire process looked to be pretty stressful on the animals.  Between being caught and carried around for a few hours, each snake is (carefully) handled as briefly as possible although it still seems significant.  BUT I'm not a herpetologist and this was my first rodeo.  The head of the project has been carrying out this study for decades and I should trust his method.  Ultimately the animals are placed back into the exact same spot they were found in, hopefully to reproduce and make more massasaugas.  

The overall consensus is that the massasauga isn't doing well.  There simply isn't enough space allocated for them.  Snake fungal disease has taken its toll on the population, and people still kill them when they see them.  Factor in natural predation, winter kills, and other uncontrollable factors, and you have an estimated expiration date for the Illinois animals (possibly during my lifetime but hopefully not).  In my opinion, the loss of the massasauga throughout mostly all of the state and Midwest is one of the most devastating losses in the natural world, up there with the passenger pigeon and American elm.  To me, no other snake better embodies the spirit of the prairie than the eastern massasauga.  I was honored to be in their presence and humbled by the experience.

Not a massasauga!  Bycatch - a common garter snake, and yours truly.  Photo by Jeremy Schumacher.

Flortoises

 At the tail end of March (and into the first week of April), my family and I took a vacation to northern Florida.  It was not a herping trip, but invariably some herping took place.  Being in that part of Florida at that time of year was really great.  Though this past winter wasn't really THAT bad, they are always too long, at least by my standards.  So just being somewhere warm was a welcome departure from a part of the country that was trying to shake winter's grasp.

As expected, lots of anoles.  Both the native green anoles (Anolis carolinensis) and the non-native brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) were observed, but the browns outnumbered the greens 100:1 (give or take a few).

We hiked this seaside park consisting of ocean scrub habitat.  It looked good for gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) so as we walked we kept our eyes peeled.  I spotted a couple of burrows before chatting with another visitor who said she'd seen a tortoise the day before.  About ten minutes later I caught my first glimpse of a gopher tortoise's rear end as it ducked into its burrow underneath dense vegetation.  I wanted my daughter to see a tortoise so we kept on looking. 

Tortoise burrow

Then, right near the parking lot, I spotted this tortoise.  It had just emerged from its burrow, the entrance of which is obscured by vegetation in this photo.  

With a slight approach, I zoomed in and got a few shots as the tortoise spun around and retreated back toward its burrow.  Lumen was able to see the tortoise before it disappeared and she was happy, but I couldn't help but feel concern for the tortoises.  The preserve was dismally small, surrounded on three sides by huge resorts, with roads cutting through every which way.  A mere decade ago this natural area was much larger.  People like to build and build and build some more and then as a sort of compromise, they set aside tiny fragments of natural lands for all to enjoy.  And I think most visitors don't ever see a problem with this model.  To most people this is like a safe little Jurassic Park.  The problem is that it is not sustainable.  The tortoises, boxed in and stressed from the barrage of humans, are at risk of being struck by vehicles or fading away due to inbreeding.  I can go on, but instead I'll end it with this:  support conservation efforts.  However you can, just do something.  

A view of the adjacent beach

An eggshell from what I believe to be a tortoise (as opposed to a sea turtle), but I really don't know. 

We had an unforgettable time at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park. The zoo is one of the best kept - and best represented - zoos I've visited.  I had wanted to visit since I was a young kid so I was particularly excited.  The highlight of our trip was an exclusive, up close and personal experience with the zoo's entire group of adult Galapagos tortoises.  There is an extra cost involved but it goes toward conservation so to me it's a win-win.  

The family with Dirk, a 111-year old male tortoise.

This is the historic poured-cement alligator pond at the zoo.  In it are a group of impressive, well-fed (understatement) American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis).

A trip to Blue Spring State Park netted these images.  Highly recommended natural area.  And home to overwintering manatees.  Though, by the time we arrived, only one lonely manatee remained at the spring head.  The spring was beautiful - dare I say breathtaking, but I couldn't help but notice dozens, or maybe hundreds, of really big plecostemus in the water.  These armored catfish, native to South America and popular in the aquarium trade, are known to harass the delicate manatees.  I also saw lots of other non-native fish including tilapia (native to Africa and Middle East).  According to a 2021 fish count conducted by the Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute, the tilapia now make up 86% of the total fish biomass at that site.  The only native fish I observed were a few gar.  If you're wondering why I can't just enjoy the scenery, it's because I suffer from a bad case of "That doesn't belong here".  

A pretty lichen iNaturalist tells me is Christmas lichen

Toward the end of our self-guided tour of the park, we rehydrated at the picnic tables and were straight-up harassed by a couple of squirrels who had - ZERO - fear of humans.  While we tried to eat our snacks, these little hellions tried to grab our food away from us.  

Yeah it was kind of funny, but I didn't want to spend our vacation in a hospital, so we got the heck out of there.  Overall, it was a wonderful trip - a snapshot of northern Florida that in all likelihood, will continue to lose its natural integrity.

A summary of Chicago-area exploits of '21

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.

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.

Ok, cheating again.  Throughout the winter, Matt and I discussed heading down to central IL to listen for the state-threatened Illinois chorus frog (Pseudacris maculata) once the area hit a mild spell.  We found that break in early March, when the air was fresh and the sun (very briefly) felt good on our backs.  Even though it hadn't rained, the humidity was reasonably high and the ponds were swollen.  Best of all, we found not just the one but three species of Pseudacris, as well as several dead bullfrogs showing indications they had been preyed upon.

We began searching as the sun was calling it a day

Approximately 45% of the frogs heard were boreal chorus frogs (Pseudacris maculata)

Approximately 45% of the frogs heard were spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer).

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).

A few days later, as conditions continued to improve in favor of the frogs,  I visited one of the marshes at West Branch, across the street from my house.  This marsh, located on the west side of the river, was full of calling boreal chorus frogs.  Later in the year, I'd record gray treefrogs (Hyla versicolor) from here for only the second time since 2018!  Numbers seemed more robust than 2018, too.  Which is excellent news.  

On March 20, I got my J&J covid vaccine.  Since I was in the neighborhood, I stopped by the Dunning-Read Conservation Area, which I've touched on quite a bit in blog posts in years past.  I was not surprised to see acre upon acre of teasel monocultures.  Even the walking path was shrouded in last year's growth - it was at times hard to know when I was even on the path.  The fact that the teasel is this bad is a testament to the neglect incurred by the conservation organizations tasked with maintaining the site.  There is no management plan in place - the one I helped draft years ago is probably lost to time.  At best, groups of local community college students may be bused in to lop away at sections of the preserve, but there is little to no consultation with ecologists or restorationists.  Until someone professional steps in, nothing will change here.

THE last corrugated metal cover board at the site - the others were picked up by scrappers back in (I think) 2015.  Since I don't get out this way very often these days, I took this one home with me and later placed it in a spot local to me (with permission).

Also in mid-March, Matt and I headed down to a site in Will County where some years ago, wood frogs (Rana sylvaticus) were recorded - ONCE.  It's an interesting story, maybe interesting only to nerds like me (I won't speak for Matt but let's just say he's a kindred spirit).  We hiked all over the vicinity of the known location and heard several species of frogs calling from ponds on private property, but alas, no wood frogs.  I thought it may have been possible that we were actually late to the party, as the wood frog is an early and explosive breeder.  But who really knows.


We did find one blue-spotted salamander (Ambystoma laterale).



Beginning in late March, I began taking my daughter out with me a lot.  We went on a lot of adventures together - in fact I'd say they were the best times we've ever had outdoors as a duo.  I cannot stress how much of a trooper she is.  We've been out for hours at a time, hiking up and down hills, through marshes, in the cold; we've bushwhacked through some dense vegetation and we've made some great discoveries.  This is a photo from West Branch, while we checked out the eastern banks following a recent controlled burn.

One of several scorched eastern gartersnakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) - an unfortunate but not unexpected victim of the fires that actually help reshape the landscape into something more indicative of pre-settlement Illinois.  It was a challenging lesson for my daughter.  Certainly she still hasn't quite grasped it.


The first weekend of April was especially memorable.  My daughter and I went salamandering in southern Cook County and we found lots of cool things, including something I don't see often at all - a Cook County spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum).  I emphasized the significance of this find to her and she proudly, and briefly, held it for the camera.

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.

If thinking these are the coolest snakes around makes me less of a herpetological aficionado, then so be it. The beautiful and street smart plains garter snake. I will forever defend these guys.

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.

A northern watersnake.  I did tell the kids to avoid these, only because they aren't as forgiving as the queens.

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.

Then a few days later, I spotted this lump on the side of the road near my house.  It is a female common snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) nesting in the well-drained soil level with the raised roadbed, next to a lake. 

A photo of Waubonsie Creek in Oswego, taken while searching for queensnakes.

A bullfrog tadpole found near my work during a warm, sunny lunch break.

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

My daughter catching creek life

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.

While visiting my mom in Chicago in late June, I introduced my daughter to a part of the yard where, as a teenager, I’d find terrestrial snails.  This area is between the chain link fence and the northern side of the garage.  They lived under flat rocks and slabs of concrete at the time, but in recent years I haven’t seen any live ones.  I always wonder why they winked out.  Still, my daughter had a good time collecting the old bleached shells.

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.

Yep, no snakes found here. Believe it.

Our first yard toad came very late due to the prolonged drought our area experienced.  This chonker made an appearance on the 4th of July!

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.

Painted turtle and map turtle

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!

During a trip to Oswego, my family stopped by Waubonsie Creek and we had a fun time creekwalking. 

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.

The omnipresent bullfrog

An alert little cricket frog

Playing with fire with Mr. Marcin.  Marcin, whom I befriended years ago while at NEIU, lives in a former one-room schoolhouse on two acres of land surrounded by new subdivisions.  He raises chickens and bees and he and his girlfriend have a most impressive garden.  I love his spirit.

In early October, we spent a couple nights in Galena (cheating one last time I swear!).  

Walking goats through the woods

Nothing too exciting here, but it was cool to see these snakes on a mild, sunny November day during my daughter's Girl Scout troop meeting near our house.  The kids seemed excited.

Brownsnake

Eastern gartersnake

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!

A southern two-lined salamander

A view of Horse Thief's Cave from across Rock Creek