Twelve Months of Northern Ohio Herping Highlights 2025 (Part 2)

On April 18th I saw my first Blanding's Turtles. These reptiles are known to travel long distances - often more than a mile - in search of suitable habitat for breeding and feeding. Because of their movement patterns, Blanding's Turtles require larger landscapes than many other turtle species, making them especially vulnerable to habitat fragmentation and degradation.

To me, Snapping Turtles look like mini-dinosaurs. They occur in most freshwater habitats and sometimes enter brackish water. This one was basking on a tree trunk.

A fine group of Midland Painted Turtles catching some rays.

Occasionally garter and water snakes will have residue on them from hibernation. This coppery brown coating disappears after the snake sheds its skin. This is a Northern Water Snake.

A Red-ear Slider - Yellowbelly Slider - Painted Turtle Combo.

This Eastern Garter Snake was out and about, probably looking for food. They mainly eat earthworms, amphibians and fish.

An American Toad that I found in my yard on April 19th. Toads eat an enormous amount of insects and other invertebrates.

An Eastern Garter Snake with a hint of orange that I found on April 23rd. By far, this species is my most commonly encountered serpent in my home state.

A Black Rat Snake that I saw crossing the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath on the following day.

A Green Frog that I found on April 26th. These common creatures can have a range of colors and patterns.

American Toads in a flower pot where I was doing some gardening in the Greater Cleveland Area on May 11th.

A Toledo-area DeKay's Brown Snake that I found on May 19th. This was the first snake species that I had ever come across in the wild, so I always enjoy coming across them. They only grow to about a foot long and eat mostly earthworms.

Adult American Bullfrogs are formidable predators and will eat just about any animal that they can fit in their mouths.

An Eastern Garter Snake with a "textbook" color and pattern.

The Northern Map Turtle exhibits a yellow map or maze-like pattern on the otherwise olive to black carapace, limbs, and tail. I observed these in Ottawa County on May 19th.

I found a couple of backyard amphibians on May 20th, like this American Toad.

Redback Salamanders, although often associated with living in wooded habitats, are often found under the rocks at the edges of our gardens.