Chicago Herpetological Society

CHICAGOLAND HERP ACTIVITY 2001 SEASON

  The following is a chronological list of field observations of amphibians and reptiles in the Chicago Area during the year 2001.  CHS is compiling voluntarily contributed observations so that we can help local conservation programs to estimate activity periods of or region's herps.  Please feel free to add to this chronology.  To send an observation email the following to the CHS Web Master (chris@graptemys.com).

  To contribute:
Give the DATE, list species, give a rough description of the location(s) at which your observations were made (e.g., "eastern Will County," "southern Lake County, Indiana" etc.), provide any other brief notes or comments, and give your name (withheld on request).  If you give your name, and you are contacted for additional locality information please be careful who you give this to, as some may wish to collect at your field sites.

March 20: Ambystoma laterale, Ambystoma maculatum, Pseudacris triseriata (Many Calling), Pseudacris crucifer (two calling), Thamnophis sirtalis.  Will County, Illinois.

March 21: Pseudacris triseriata. Several sites near Mundelein, Libertyville, and Buffalo Grove, Lake County, Illinois. By day, several small choruses heard, only in small sunlit wetlands, including wet depressions in agricultural fields and along roadsides. Many adjacent wooded wetlands still iced-over with no frogs calling. M. Redmer.

March 21: Ambystoma texanum (40+ egg masses), Pseudacris triseriata (manycalling) in small woodland pond with no ice cover. 1 Adult A. texanum underlog at edge of pond. Observations made between 1300-1500 hrs. Will County.

March 23: Pseudacris triseriata. Heard calling at several sites in eastern Will County. Ambystoma laterale pre-spawn males found under logs in eastern Will County. M. Redmer. 

March 24: Pseudacris triseriata. Heard calling in afternoon, small wetlands in vacant lots in both Carol Stream and Wheaton (DuPage County). M. Redmer

March 30: Pseudacris triseriata. Several moderately large choruses heard at dusk in small wetland along east side of Crab Tree Forest Preserve (NW Cook County). M. Redmer.

June 13: Hyla versicolor, Acris crepitans, Rana clamitans (numerous individuals in several choruses), western central, and eastern Grundy County, Illinois. Hyla habitat included a farmed wetland, a gravel quarry, and flooplain field, and a swimming pool. Acris and Rana clamitans were in a gravel quarry and floodplain field. M. Redmer. 

July 8  :Five (5) Fox snakes (Elaphe vulpina) found in western DuPage County, all in good health and released. Specimens ranged from juvenile to young adult and fully adult female believed to be gravid. Found by Zachary Bravos and Kara Travis, a biology major from the University of Michigan Flint MI campus). Some photos attached. This is an isolated population surrounded by development.Further details will not be disclosed as even limited hunting will decimate this habitat.

August 21: Storeria occipitomaculata (15), Storeria dekayi (4), Thamnophis sirtalis (3), Bufo americanus (4), most under trash other debris, NW Cook County, Illinois. M. Redmer.

August 23: Opheodrys vernalis (1) and Storeria dekayi (2) under roadside trash, extreme SE Cook County. Numerous DOR Bufo americanus, Rana pipiens and Rana clamitans on same stretch of road. M. Redmer.

September 9: Thamnophis sirtalis (1) crossing Illinois Prairie Path; Rana pipiens (1), Rana clamitans (1), Rana catesbeiana (5) observed in or along shallow wetland. All in extreme NE Kane County, Illinois.

September 13: Elaphe vulpina (1) in suburban yard in Carol Stream, DuPage County Illinois.

October 1: Rana catesbeiana (numerous recently metamorphosed juveniles) in roadside ditch in Lakemoor, McHenry County, Illinois.

October 2: Thamnophis sirtalis (1 AOR, 2 DOR), Nerodia sipedon (1 AOR), Storeria dekayi (9 AOR, 5 DOR), all along a road that parallels the DesPlaines River, in WC Cook County, Illinois.

2002

February 12: Thamnophis sirtalis observed under rubbish in Des Plaines, Illinois by Mike Weisenstein.

February 26: Thamnophis sirtalis (female) observed near its den in some garden bricks. It was found in Cook County by John Spivey..