Finally, a cover page!

Well... Here's the cover for "Are You Smarter Than a Cephalopod" (finally)!

Also, here is some biology wordplay. The milk snake is in the genus, Lampropeltis, which means "shiny shield". The shield in the picture is covered with a lichen called Ophioparma, which means "snake shield". Therefore... Shiny Shield, Snake Shield.

Snakes and Skinks

This is a handsome skink, either broad-headed or five-lined (probably five-lined now that I think about it), who has recently taken up residency on the side of my house. 

A couple of friends and I went to Waponnoca today to collect lichens, and we ended up finding seven ribbon snakes. This one bit Austyn. She said she couldn't feel it at all. Snake, I'm sorry to say, your defense mechanism does not work on biologists.

Here's one that was a little calmer. They all had a pretty blue tinge to their scales.

We didn't know what this plant was.

It was pretty though.

A funnel spider web!

The skinks were too fast for pictures, and the frogs never showed their faces. The snakes were happy to pose for us though (I think), and we found lots of lichens. It was a productive trip!

It's Good Friday. 

Snake Road

Hi there! Some friends and I went up to Snake Road yesterday and saw some awesome herps.

Bullfrog.

Lithobates catesbeianus. Also bullfrog.

Angry ribbon snake. Either that or he was really excited to see me.

Diadophis punctatus.

Rat Snake.

Sneaky Cottonmouth.

Plethodon mississippi.

Cottonmouth trying to convince us that he's a rattlesnake. Seriously, he rattled his rattleless tail against the leaves and shouted, "I AM A RATTLESNAKE!" at the top of his lung. It's his other defense mechanism. Very convincing.

Plethodon cinereus. Very small. Very cute.

I think this is a gray tree frog? There was some debate on the trail. He did have yellow on his hind  legs though.

Eastern fence lizard. This particular one was not found on a fence.

Storeria dekayi. The brown snake.

Also, happy National Siblings Day to my sisters! If we were salamander larvae in an overcrowded pond, I'd eat you last ;)

Herping at the Ghost River

I went to the Ghost River this morning with my mom and we found some cool things:

Some weird fungi!

A tiger beetle!

Plethodon mississippi!

Parmotrema perforatum!

Flavoparmelia caperatum!

The Ghost River!

Ambystoma opacum!

Terrapene carolina! In the middle of the road!

I saw a five-lined skink as well, but was unable to get a photograph due to lightning-fast speed on the lizard's part.