Michigan Herp Trips

As the heat intensifies in Wolverine state, the herping begins to slow down in the month of June. Snakes begin to hide during the heat of the day, salamanders move farther underground as little rain falls, and the horrid swarms of deerflies begin to emerge. Although the heat and bugs can make herping a bit of a challenge, there are still plenty of herps to be found if you know where to look. The cover has also grown considerably and in some places can be waist high or higher, making it even more difficult to spot snakes on the move. I continued to herp my local area looking for rattlesnakes beginning to move upland for summer mating activity.

Home of the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake

When walking through wetland areas looking for rattlesnakes, you experience a lot of ecological diversity. These areas support great variation in plants, mammals, reptiles & amphibians, and insects. One of the coolest plants to find in wetlands are pitcher plants. These carnivorous plants trap insects in their open tubules that contain a cocktail of digestive enzymes which help break down prey and nourish the plant. Here's a blooming bitcher plant in late June.

A Blooming Pitcher Plant

Most female snakes are gravid and are almost ready to give berth to tons of little serpents around this time of the year. Gravid females sun themselves during the morning hours in order to help gestate their young. Big fat female Garter Snakes are a very common find in the mid-summer months in Michigan.

Eastern Garter Snake - Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis

An Inquisitive Female Garter Snake

Spring breeders like salamanders & some frog species are a tough find at this time of the year because of the lack of rain. However, there are some that can still be found in and around wet areas. Like this Wood Frog.

Wood Frog - Rana sylvatica

Michigan's venomous snake is by no means an easy find. Even in the spring months when cover is very sparse, they can be very difficult to spot. But as the summer goes on and the cover becomes thick, they can be almost impossible to find...Unless you know where to look. Massasaugas are relatively predictable snakes in that they move to certain types of habitat at different times of the year. They prefer to move to dry upland fields and woods in the summer months to mate and hunt their favorite food, field mice. Snakes can be sunning in the early morning hours and also moving around as the sun sets because they become more nocturnal as the heat increases. Walking these fields and their bordering edges of fen is the best bet to find these handsome little rattlesnakes.

Jason Folt checking a good looking field for Massasaugas

The key to spotting a Massasauga in this type of habitat is to move slowly, and scan almost every inch of it if you can. Massasaugas hide in cover during the hottest parts of the day, so checking in and around shrubs in open fields like the one above is a good bet. In addition, the wooded edges of the fields can hold some beautiful surprises...

Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake - Sistrurus catenatus catenatus

There's nothing like being able to herp with friends and family. My cousins Evan & Robbie visited me over the 4th of July weeken and we were able to do a bit of herping. We began our herping on a hazy morning at my local stomping grounds. It began to drizzle and there was very little herp movement, so I was ready to call it a day. But my cousins insisted that we stay out and flip some rocks and tin to see if anything was taking shelter anything. The weather began to clear and we started turning up some snakes. I found flipped this pretty little Northern Brown Snake under a board and Robbie flipped a somewhat melanistic Garter under a tire.

Northern Brown Snake - Storeria dekayi dekayi

Eastern Garter Snake - Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis

On our way out of the park, we saw this sad sight...

Northern Ribbon Snake - Thamnophis sauritus sepentrionalis

Bullfrogs were a common sight as well...

American Bullfrog - Rana catesbeiana

After flipping tons of logs and turning nothing up but Redbacks, I was less than enthused when Rob needed help lifting a huge uprooted tree trunk to check for sallies. I'm glad we did, underneath was my first Ambystomatid since early spring; a pure Ambystoma laterale. The park is located far enough north in Michigan that these sallies are out of the hybridization zone. It was awesome to see a pure Blue-spot.