My Teen Herpetologist

This is my first born son.  He likes reptiles, amphibians, and all things that slither.  He is a budding herpetologist and recently turned into a teenager.  Even though he likes to spend inordinate amounts of time with snakes. . .we still like him.   As a part of my fatherly responsibilities I like to take each one of my kids on a trip of their choosing.  Caleb picked a place called “Snake Road”.   We were blessed that  Scott Ballard (Herpetologist / Illinois Department of Natural Resources) asked us to come along with him to “tag” endangered Green Water Snakes.    snakeroadandgymnastics 002

This is a Cottonmouth.  We saw a bunch of these guys as we walked along Snake Road.

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That is not a stick in the water.  It  is also a Cottonmouth (about 4 feet long).

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This is Scott showing us what we came for. . .  a Green Water Snake.

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This is a Green Tree Frog.  Pretty huh? snakeroadandgymnastics 059

The day would not be complete without seeing a baby Cottonmouth.

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We saw 20 snakes, a bunch of frogs, one toad, an empty turtle shell, walked over 4 miles, got a one day biology lesson from Illinois’ leading Herpetologist, and basically had a GREAT day.

Published in: on October 8, 2009 at 2:14 pm  Comments (2)  

2 Comments

  1. On October 8, 2009 at 9:35 pm Tonya said:

    Totally cool…except for the snakes (actually they are kinda cold). I’m ok w/frogs & toads & turtles (oh my!), but not snakes.

    Guess I’m glad there’s guys like Scott & Caleb in the world — so I don’t have to touch them!

    I’m glad you had fun!

    • On October 8, 2009 at 11:06 pm waddey said:

      It was pretty awesome.


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