Last weekend our illustrious Kelly Irwin came up to pay a visit.  One of his buddies from his Kansas days was in town to see his family and I had a couple of herp specimens I had been holding for him.

Jim was game for herping a bit and put in a request for a "flat rock hillside".  I scratched my head a couple of times and thought about where I knew to herp nearby that was most like Kansas...not like this is an easy thing.  I put in a call to a landowner I knew and arrangements were made.

Kelly, you aren't in Kansas anymore...even if it looks like it. 

I've seen a lot of Milksnakes in my time, but none quite like this.  Kelly termed it a "Buckskin Milksnake".

We all ended up finding a few of these on the day, but Kelly *really* found this nice one. 

Driving by a small creek, I spotted this large female Map Turtle basking.  The creek was shallow and with a net it was an easy catch.

No hiding in its shell for this big female.  I love the massive, mollusk-crushing jaws on these things.

Other finds were the usual suspects: Ring-necked Snakes, Wormsnakes, Earth Snakes (I believe we had both Rough and Smooth), Flat-headed Snakes, Five-lined Skinks, Ground Skinks, Prairie Lizard, Slimy Salamanders, Toads, Cricket Frogs, a Narrow-mouthed Toad or two, and probably a thing or two not coming to mind right now.  (Also saw DOR Ratsnakes, DOR/AOR Box Turtles, and AOR Snapper on the drive to/from.)

Evidence of the recent flooding was all around, but this was one of the more dramatic spots.  The creek had literally shifted from one side of this wide wash to the other side...and just about took out the road in the process.

The herping was damped a bit by a couple of things...  One was that the ground was just absolutely saturated, even seeping up water in many places.  Two, and more concerning, was that the site had been visited recently by other herpers...who left many, many rocks flipped over.  Nothing is more frustrating than turning up nice rock after nice rock and finding only dead spots of grass. 

Even after questioning the landowners (who were at least contacted and gave permission) I have not been able to figure out who these others might have been.  This is a site I discovered a few years back and established communication/relationship with the owners...and since then have invited only a select few people to join me in herping it, but not in the last couple of years.  I requested that the landowners restrict herping access for a time to "let the rocks rest" because they had not been cared for properly.

Despite it all, the weather was glorious, we found enough herps to keep us happy, Jim--our primary guest--had a GREAT time...so did Kelly and I.  Hopefully we can do it again in the future!