Queensnake - one of my last illinois lifers..

[Sushigaijin]

I still have a handful of herp species that I haven't seen in Illinois - and while the list is dwindling, the few stragglers have been really hard to find. This spring I found a scaphiophus which was a huge start, but other than that I've been finding the same old stuff...so to speak, of course. Any day herping is better than a day working!!

I spent Wednesday flipping rocks in a DuPage county stream looking for queensnakes, an unassuming watersnake that eats freshly-molted crayfish and lives in high quality streams. After a few hours of rock flipping, I finally turned one up. Yes, I'm very sore today.







And I did find a couple other snakes in the meantime, here's a northern watersnake with the habitat I was searching - I would have loved a queensnake in habitat shot like this, but at four inches long I would have a hard time recreating it

[AmberC]

Great series Erik :thumbsup:

[paulnj]

Very cool looking snake and congrats on getting a new lifer. Are you saying a queen snake is 4 inches long? Wow if that's the case.

[Loupey]

Congrats on the find!

I really like shot #3 - the rocks, leaf, and water adhesion really showcase the small size of this specimen.

[scott-devon]

You really know your species and how to shoot them. It's always a pleasure to open your posts. Great stuff.