Late April in Hocking Hills, Ohio 2011

The last weekend in April (28, 29 and 30th) I travelled to south-central Ohio with 16 high school students to an area known as Hocking Hills.

We arrived on Thursday night and did a Night Hike along a creek. It's pretty much rained throughout the month of April in Ohio and the temperature was rather cool.

The habitat we were exploring.

Two-lined Salamander.

A Two-lined that was a bit larger than the first.

I found a decent-sized Slimy Salamander.

A thunderstorm broke out and we had to retreat back to the bus.

The following morning we went zip lining.

Fungus.

That afternoon three of the reptile-centric students that were staying in my cabin headed to Lake Hope to see what we could find. The weather was overcast and cool (in the 50s). We found our first Ohio snakes of the year. Gil (far left) lifted a rock that had three Northern Ringneck Snakes under it.

These small snakes have a brightly colored ventral surface.

We also found a few Five-lined Skinks, like this male.

And this female.

The following morning we headed out to Ash Cave. But first, the students never tire of finding ways to remind me of my intense dislike for Star Wars.

Ash Cave is the largest recess cave in Ohio.

I found these redback Salamanders.

This set off the students on a salamander search.

Dusky Salamanders were common in the area.

Tiny Dusky.

Full-sized Dusky.

White Trillium is Ohio's state wildflower.

The quest for reptiles and amphibians continued once we made it to the top of the cave.

Later we hiked alongside this creek.

We found a few Longtail Salamanders.

Eastern Garter Snake as found.

Graham, a sophomore, decided to catch it.

He got musked and pooped on.

A second EGS.

Pickerel Frog.

We saw a Northern Water Snake that eluded capture, despite the effort of three students and myself. I fell back from the group and spotted this one basking on a fallen tree.

A wasn't thrilled about the prospects of wading out into the water to snag a snake that would surely bite me if I was "lucky" enough to catch it, but I did not want to let the students down. I thought I was alone with the snake. I slowly approached it, made a grab, and then felt its teeth as it sank them into my wrist. From the shoreline I heard a woman yell "Oh my GOD!", drop her things and go running off down the trail.

Posed photo of the same snake.

A smaller Northern Water snake that we found near Conkle's Hollow.

The students being led by their high school biology teacher, Mr. Maretka, through Conkle's Hollow.

Black Rat Snake - this one was approaching six feet.

Vidja is an exchange student from Iceland. On the first day of the trip I asked her what she hoped to see and she said "A snake." Here she is with a Black Rat Snake that I caught at the last hike.

Although the weather wasn't so great, it still was a pretty good weekend.