looking for ppl to herp w/ in central Iowa
 

hey just shoot me an e-mail if you are interested. I can usually find bith species of garters and foxes on any given trip. But i have found prarie ring necks, brown snakes, bull snakes, northern water snakes, and a few other common species. e-mail is
fugi-669@mchsi.com
_Ben Hoksch

I'd be interested. I'm in Des Moines and just getting back into herping. I know NO good spots around central Iowa. Any help would be appreciated :)

reptile spots.
 

well u familiar with johnston? I know some good spots there. just off of the johnston exit, go north on Merle hay Rd. and turn left 3rd set of stoplights. Pioneer Pkwy. Then follow that road and you will take youe 3rd left. (i think) it is the entrance to Crown Point Pool. Park there and walt to the tennis courts. IN the back right corner there are spaces and cracks in the concrete. Ive found brown snakes, both species of garters, and fox snakes (i got a pic of 2 breeding) and thats about it. But just walk ther areas back there and you are bound to run into something. And keep an eye out for bull snakes. I haven seen any in 3 years, but i allways get reports.
Other than that Big creek state park is good for road cruisin and great for water snakes. Umm..... those are the ones that i go to that are pretty close to me.

gime a call if you are heading down there ever.
_Ben Hoksch
770-1524

thanks! Will do!

Central Iowa Herping
 

Just found this forum and am extremely interested in herping in Central Iowa. Been in Iowa for 15 years and had little-to-no luck until recently. I will be trying the location in Johnston. My finds have been mostly limited to small garter-snakes, usual DOR on the bike trails. Even searching on my father-in-laws farm has turned up nothing but the carcass of a small snake so badly decomposed that we couldn't identify it.

Our luck has always been so bad that we ended up purchasing a baby corn snake for $10 at the recent IHS sale a few weeks ago. Our luck did change this weekend as my son and I were in SE Iowa this past weekend and found:

One - 5" Brown snake - slithering away off a trail
One - 4'-Plus Black Rat Snake, perched about 5 feet off the ground in the branches of a small bush w/no leaves
One - Even Larger Black Rat Snake - sunning itself by the lake and went in the water as we got about 10 feet away.

For us, it was a huge weekend - can't wait to go back.