Hey there, I also live in Kansas. I am an hour out of Manhattan, but I still go there to find critters. On any given day, I can usually find milksnakes, black rats, plains rats, ringnecks, red-sided garters, yellow-bellied racers, speckled kings, prairie kings, collard lizards, great plains skinks, five-lined skinks, legless lizards, coal skinks, copperheads, massasaugas, and sometimes tiber rattlers if im lucky. The timbers are more to the east though. Shot me a email at the end of March and ill take you to some great spots.
sppeavy@hotmail.com