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In mid-April I had the chance to accompany the West Texas A&M herpetology class through some tallgrass prairie habitat in Oklahoma. Considering that this is the part of the world I grew up in (just over the border in Kansas), but haven't herped in close to a decade, it was like a homecoming for me! The open prairies are gorgeous, and covered with limestone and sandstone rocks, all begging to be flipped (in a professional manner, all were placed back).



An added bonus were the Bison that had been re-introduced to the area. This was particularly neat as it was calfing season.





Another non-herp first for me was observing a Prairie Chicken lek. I was not able to get good pictures as the lighting was poor and the distance too great, but I attached one anyway!



As far as herp species go, we turned up Southern Prairie Skinks



Red Sided Garter Snakes



a nice red Ground Snake


and Massasaguas.



One of the highlights of the trip though was the Lampropetis trifecta:

Speckled Kingsnake


Prairie Kingsnake


and the Milksnake.


We also spent some time in rocky uplands.




There we observed Black Rat Snakes


Copperheads


and a Timber Rattlesnake hibernaculum. We didn't bother these guys, just took some shots from a distance and left them alone. Actually they were probably gestating females, hence the need to reduce stress upon them.



Finally we move into the riparian habitats.


There were many anurans calling and breeding, including American toads,



American Toad eggs


Southern Leopard Frogs


Western Chorus Frogs



Spotted Chorus Frogs



and Cricket Frogs.



Of course, chasing those frogs were ribbon snakes!



The biggest highlight for me though was capturing map turtles. Map turtles are some of my favorite aquatic turtles and something I haven't seen in the wild for almost a decade. Below is False Map Turtle.





That about wraps up this trip. The tally is currently sitting at about 5,000 miles driven and 90 species of amphibians and reptiles observed. Until next time, Happy Herping.

Daren