Danny - "It was nice to be back in my home state for much of the week and become reacquainted with species not found further west. It was also one of the first really hot weeks this summer, and we expected to not see as many reptiles out active. Even with the heat, we were glad to find some critters out and about, mostly found in or near shade. I spotted my first two Slender Glass Lizards in many years this week - they are one of several legless lizard species found in North America (see photo above). We recorded a few other firsts for the project, including Northern Watersnake (albeit not a terrestrial 'target' species for this project), Common Gartersnakes, and a Great Plains Skink. I was also sent home with about 500 reminders that late July in the field can mean chiggers, mosquitoes, biting flies, and ticks are in full force in some areas! Volunteers in the eastern Plains should not forget their long pants and insect repellent!"

Beth - "Flipping through 'Ampibians, Reptiles, & Turtles in Kansas' I skimmed over the Slender Glass Lizard never expecting to actually see a species so strange in the wild. I was not expecting to be walking through grass taller than myself, rolling hills, or deciduous forest in Kansas either but I was. The Glass Lizard, legless and slender, looked like a snake on the road. Yet, this species is easily distinguished from snakes by the presence of an external ear opening and eyelids. When it went to move off the gravel, it wasn't nearly as fluid as a snake, more like a noodle being shocked into spurts of movement. This bizarre and striking reptile was definitely my favorite find from an awesome week in Kansas."

Devin - "This week Celina and I checked out some newly-accessed habitat in Oklahoma and southern Colorado. On one of the sites our first day of surveying there was a long stretch of river that ran through our survey plot. I decided to walk along the bank of this river with the hopes of finding a few garter snakes in my path. Although I didn't end up finding any garter snakes, I did find a ton of Plains Leopard Frogs and Bullfrogs, including some Bullfrogs that were as large as a dinner plate! There was also a beaver at the camp site that night which was a first for me!"

Celina - "A rare treat this week was a Plains Hog-nosed Snake, a species which I haven't encountered in about 3 years. Hog-nosed snakes are fossorial (live below ground surface) and tend to come out after rains, when their preferred prey item (toads) are also moving around and abundant. This individual was willing to let me take several voucher photographs before deciding he was done with my attentions, flattening out his head and neck to appear larger and intimidating but merely slowly slithering off back into the grass, giving a hiss back at me for trying to take more pictures of this display, and out of sight."

Celina - "Things picked up a little bit more this week which was very exciting for us! It's about the time of year where things are slowing down a bit but we still saw a good variety of species. Sometimes I joke that my favorite method of finding cryptic species is the "I almost stepped on it but then it moved" method because they can be tricky to see. A female Short-horned Lizard did a very good job of escaping my notice until she darted a bit further away as I was stepping quite close to her. Live birth is considered by many to be a "mammal trait" but it's just not true. Short-horned Lizards (and many other cold-adapted species of reptiles such as Prairie Rattlesnakes) give live birth so they can better regulate the temperature of their young as they develop."

Beth - "I had not seen a single reptile under a cow patty all summer. Still, I have been lifting them regularly, my hopes kept alive by stories of skinks and small snakes found squirming underneath them. Torrential rains had left the plains of Comanche National Grassland still soaked in some areas and I was walking through one with a few cow patties in it. I stared down a patty and thought, “this patty will have a snake under it.” I flipped it with my boot and there lay a cream colored Western Ground Snake with a jet-black head on the moist ground! I was shocked that in fact there was actually a snake under this one patty out of at least 40 I had flipped that day alone. It was a species I have never seen before and it showed me its bright pink belly as it twisted into a knot in the grass. As it eventually slinked away, I vowed to flip more cow patties and to be similarly careful about what I wished for."

Beth - "Sometimes, I’ll be nearing the end of a survey and not having seen any reptiles, I’ve given up on any hope of seeing any species on a survey plot. Then, without warning, a Lesser Earless Lizard will squirm across my line of sight in a barren landscape. Or a Prairie Rattlesnake will be waiting silently in the last burrow I check. I was surprised by some reptile species in a similar way this week by finding them in unexpected habitats. In sandy soils dotted with sagebrush I was not expecting to see a bright red Coachwhip scoot across a road, and I found an Ornate Box Turtle shell in a heavily-grazed shortgrass plot with no other species observed. It had me wondering at first if it could have some how been dropped there by mistake. Six-lined Racerunners looked like giants among Lesser Earless Lizards around a prairie dog town, shocking my search image, which was adjusted only for the smaller species. Spending so much time in the field every week reveals oddities and exceptions that I would not observe otherwise."

Jake - “As the days get longer and hotter in the middle of summer, it can sometimes be difficult to keep up the motivation to keep looking for these elusive animals. It can get tiring, frustrating, and more often than not, those hot days won’t yield much in terms of reptile encounters. On the other hand, it can make those few encounters even more special than they otherwise would be. Just when you’re feeling like it’s time to give up hope on finding anything, you’ll run into a Lesser Earless Lizard or a Six-Lined Racerunner, and all that motivation will come rushing back. So while it can get difficult at times, it’s important to keep in mind what this research will benefit, and push on through the slow days.”

Celina - "When you're starting something new, absolutely everything is new and exciting - every new species is a lifer! Everybody loves having a life list of something - whether it's the birds or herps you've seen, what you've been bit by (not my favorite list to be honest), exciting places you've been; everybody keeps track of what's exciting to them. This week we had rain come through, and I thought to myself "Yes! It'll bring out so much stuff!" yet the week continued to be oh... so slow. Friday rolled around and I knew we were on our last survey of the week, and I was determined to find something new! Something exciting! I never seem to be good at finding the lizards or snakes hiding under cow patties- spiders and beetles and crickets, yes, but not reptiles. I was absolutely delighted when I lifted a cow patty to find a lifer and a species of a family that I love... a Many Lined Skink (see voucher photo above). I know they've been documented multiple times this summer by others, but I hadn't observed one yet. It was a perfect end to the week and a lesson in perseverance - just because only 1 out of 500 cow patties(/rocks/logs) has a herp under it, doesn't mean you shouldn't lift it up anyway and hope it's the lucky one. You never know!

Devin - "Late this week, Celina and I broke off from the other crew members to survey a few sites on the Pawnee National Grasslands in northeastern Colorado. This was a new environment to survey for me and I was excited to see what we would be able to find up there. On one of our road cruises, I found a pair of bull snakes that were very close to each other. I don't usually see two snakes together that often, so I assumed that they were a breeding pair. On top of that we saw nearly 20 Lesser Earless lizards on the drive between survey sites the previous day!"

Beth - "The North American Racer is usually a swift, active snake but the one I stumbled upon in Comanche National Grasslands hung around for a while. We startled each other in the short grass and the Racer posed uncharacteristically long enough for me to take some shots of its black eyes looking like an alien with its light green body. This is a species I was familiar with in the eastern U.S. before starting with the Reptile Monitoring Project. However, Racers in the Great Plains are not solid black in coloration like their relatives on the east coast."

Devin - "This week we switched up crews and Beth and I headed down to southern Colorado to check out survey sites in Otero County. While we were down there, we spotted a beautiful Prairie Rattlesnake sitting on the road that stayed put long enough to let us get some good voucher photos of it!"

Celina - "Texas Horned Lizards are always a delight to find. Somehow I find their almost grumpy and disapproving demeanor charming and find myself often surprised by how bright the yellow highlights on them can be in some individuals! They can be tricky to find again (for a voucher photo opp) when you see them run off the road into cover, but they tend to pose nicely once you find them again."

Jake - "Last week, I wrote about how cool it is to see severe storms from a distance... this week, we experienced the storms close up.  In SW Kansas, we had a major storm roll over us in the late afternoon, which forced us to take cover. The lightning was intense, and the rain and hail was so thick we could hardly see. I've never experienced a storm so violent. On the plus side, the rain brought out the Ornate Box Turtles in force, and we had our hands full trying to record them all! It was a truly incredible experience."