Day Tripping to Adams County

If you have ever spent time with me, you probably know that I love Adams County in southern Ohio. Adams County has some of the most fantastic and unique nature in the state of Ohio. Last week I traveled to Adams County with two fellow naturalists from Ohio University—Olivia Brooks and Alayna Tokash—in order to do some botanizing, herping, and birding.

Out of the several places we traveled to, the favorite was Lynx Prairie. Lynx Prairie is a public preserve that is owned by The Nature Conservancy, and is a location I've written about extensively on this blog. To get a general overview about the nature and history of this famous preserve, check out this link: Lynx Prairie Posts. Lynx Prairie is a system of 10 xeric short grass prairies that are of varying sizes. There is a whole host of interesting and rare species that call these "pocket prairies" home, and so I wanted to share a few of the highlights from my most recent trip!

I'll begin with this inconspicuous flower. This is Slender Ladies'-Tresses (Spiranthes lacera). The ladies'-tresses is a group of orchids with a white inflorescence that typically inhabit prairies or prairie-like habitats. There are 9 species that can be found in Ohio, with 3 of those species being state-listed. The Slender Ladies'-Tresses is one of the more common of the Spiranthes species in Ohio.

The ladies'-tresses can be a difficult group to identify down to species. To identify a ladies'-tresses, you should first see if the flowers are arranged in a single-spiral (such as the Slender Ladies'-Tresses), or a double spiral (like the Great Plains Ladies'-Tresses). After that, you have to carefully inspect the flowers. There are several single-spiral species that can be found in Adams County, but the flowers of each species differ slightly. The Slender Ladies'-Tresses has a characteristic green labellum (or lip), which can be seen above. If you want to read about some of the other species of ladies'-tresses that can be found in the prairies in Adams County, check out my previous post: Spiranthes Orchids at Blue Jay Barrens.

The most exciting plant find of the day—and a lifer for yours truly—was the unassuming succulent pictured above. This is False Aloe (Manfreda virginica). Although common in the southern US, False Aloe is extremely rare in Ohio, where it can currently only be found in Adams and Highland Counties. False Aloe has an extremely interesting history in this part of the state. False Aloe thrives in dry prairie openings, which is currently a rare habitat in Ohio. But between 8,000 and 4,000 years ago, the world entered a very warm period called the Hypsithermal. Ohio became very dry and hot, resulting in the prairies of the west extending into Ohio. False Aloe—a plant of the south-central part of the United States—is thought to have invaded northward into these new Ohio prairies during this time, where it thrived. 

When this hot, dry period ended around 4,000 years ago, the forests began to recolonize Ohio. False Aloe found itself suddenly restricted to the dry limestone barrens of southwest Ohio, which were already thousands of years old. Originally kept open during the last ice age by megafauna like the Mastodon, these barrens were now being kept open as a result of fires set by the early Native Americans in the region. False Aloe became the dominant plant in some of these limestone barrens, and one European settler from the early 1800's even made reference to an "agave desert" in the Adams County region. Once the European settlers killed and pushed the Native Americans out of this region, the human-set fires in the prairies and forests of this region ceased and became a thing of the past.

As the 1900's approached, the people living in this region allowed the forest—which had been all but clearcut in the mid 1800's—to come back. The remaining limestone barrens of Adams County that had not been developed or otherwise destroyed began experiencing the effects of natural succession. Red Cedars and Tuliptrees—which had previously been kept at bay by the fires the Native Americans had set for thousands of years—began pushing their way into the barrens. As many of these barrens became forested, the False Aloe found itself dying out in Ohio. Nowadays this species is found in only a few of the protected barrens which are managed with prescribed burns. Sadly, a recent study found that many of the remaining populations of False Aloe in Adams County are reproductively  isolated and inbred. This will only lead to a further decrease in numbers over the next century, as the seeds of inbred False Aloe tend not to thrive. At its current state, the future of the False Aloe in Ohio seems rather grim...

Moving aside from the doom and gloom to something more upbeat, here is a recently-hatched Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus) that Alayna found hiding under a loose rock. Learning that Ohio has lizards may come as a surprise to many, but Ohio is indeed home to 5 species (Eastern Fence Lizard, Common Five-Lined Skink, Broad-Headed Skink, Little Brown Skink, and the non-native Common Wall Lizard). The Eastern Fence Lizard belongs to the genus Sceloporus, which are collectively known as the "spiny lizards." The Eastern Fence Lizard is the only spiny lizard that can be found in Ohio, where it inhabits the southern and southeastern portions of the state.

Alayna Tokash (Master's student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Ohio University) studies the tiny Eastern Fence Lizard as it perches on Olivia Brooks's (Undergraduate majoring in Wildlife and Conservation Biology at Ohio University) thumb.

Eastern Fence Lizards begin mating as early as late April here in Ohio, and the first round of eggs begin hatching in June. The individual we found probably hatched out in either June or July. Although Eastern Fence Lizards can live 3-4+ years, most don't make it past their first year due to depredation or other such life-ending circumstances. Hopefully this individual makes it past the initial first year, as chances of survivorship greatly increases in year two. If you want to see what a grown-up Eastern Fence Lizard looks like, take a peek back at my previous "Eastern Fence Lizards" post.

Only an hour later, I came across another baby lizard that was hanging out in a patch of forest between two of the pocket prairies. This is a recently-hatched Common Five-Lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus). The Five-Lined Skink is the most widespread and common lizard in Ohio, but isn't commonly seen due to its secretive nature. Five-Lined Skinks can be incredibly skittish, and they will often dart up a tree, under a log, or under the leaf litter upon seeing a human or other potential threat approach. The Five-Lined Skink, along with most other species of lizards, has another line of defense in addition to great evasion skills. The Five-Lined Skink is able to detach its tail in times of danger. If a predator gets too close, or if a predator grabs onto the skink's tail, the skink is able to willingly detach its tail at one of the several breakage points along the tail. 

When the tail becomes detached, it begins to wildly thrash about, which—if all goes according to plan—will surprise and distract the predator, giving enough time for the skink to run away. The Five-Lined Skink that I caught had already used this defense earlier in the summer, as can be told by the healing stub of a tail. Amazingly, Five-Lined Skinks, and other tail-dropping lizards, are able to regrow their tail over time. The catch: they aren't able to regrow the bones in the tail, and are only able to grow a rod of cartilage that takes the place of the bones.

Lynx Prairie is a great location for Five-Lined Skinks. The Five-Lined Skink exploits edge habitats, which are areas where two different types of habitats meet. They prefer edge habitats in which a forest meets some sort of disturbed open habitat, especially if such an area offers plenty of rock and log objects to bask on and to hide underneath. There are copious amounts of edge habitat at Lynx Prairie, offering plenty of appropriate areas for Five-Lined Skinks to inhabit.

One of the most unexpected finds at Lynx occurred when Alayna flipped a small piece of wood. Underneath this tiny piece of wood were two Long-Tailed Salamanders (Eurycea longicauda). The Long-Tailed Salamander was something of a nemesis species of mine for the longest time. They can be found throughout Ohio, except for the northwest quarter of the state. They can be relatively common in near streams in moist forests, but they tend to hide pretty well under rocks and logs, and in crevices in the ground. Despite looking for them for several years, the Long-Tailed Salamander evaded me—until this year, that is. This summer I've seen several Long-Tailed Salamanders, with these being number 3 and 4. As their name implies, the Long-Tailed Salamander has an abnormally long tail when compared to other Plethodontid (lungless) salamanders. In fact, a Long-Tailed Salamander's tail makes up approximately ~60% of its entire body length.

Visiting Lynx Prairie always makes for a fantastic day. However, this trip decided to give me two rather unpleasant surprises. Somehow while in the cedar barrens, I managed to pick up dozens and dozens of tick nymphs. In fact, I ended up pulling 87 tick nymphs off my body that day, and also got 40+ chigger bites as well. I guess that's the price you have to pay to see neat things?

Five-Lined Skink!

Last week was the end of the salamander field season in Northern Ohio; the high temperatures had driven most of the Plethodontid salamanders completely underground, rendering them nearly impossible to find. With the field season over, the lab-based part of my summer job is about to begin. I have a few days off before I have to head back down to Athens, and I've spent many of those days exploring (surprise surprise). One of the locations I've visited so far is Cedar Bog Nature Preserve in Champaign County, Ohio.

Cedar Bog is indescribable; it is by far one of the most amazing, and unique, places I've been to in Ohio. There are several different types of ecosystems located there, but this post takes place in the scene above. This is a White Cedar swamp. Swamps are essentially a forested wetland, and in this case the dominant tree is the White Cedar, a rare tree in Ohio.

I was walking quietly down the boardwalk when a tiny scurrying noise caught my attention. I assumed it was probably a snake so I began searching intently for it. After a few seconds, I noticed a tiny head staring at me. It was a skink! I froze and hoped that he would possibly come out for a better view...

Sure enough, he did. This is a Five-Lined Skink, Plestiodon fasciatus. This specific individual, with his bright orange head, is a male in breeding colors. You might have heard of this skink by another common name, the Blue-Tailed Skink, which refers to the bright blue tail that the juveniles have. The Five-Lined Skink is the most common of the 5 lizard species we have in Ohio. I've previously covered another Ohio lizard on this blog, the Eastern Fence Lizard, which you can read about here. Although this species is the most common in Ohio, it isn't an easy find by any means. Skinks are incredibly fast (they're some of the fastest lizards out there), and any that might be in the area will simply run quickly away from you if you're not quiet and paying close attention. I would have never seen this guy had I not been looking and listening for anything that might be in the area.

Eventually the curious little skink wandered out onto the boardwalk only a few feet away from me. This was the start of a 10 to 15 minute game of hide-and-seek-with-a-skink. The skink would wander out into the open for a few seconds, then run away and hide. A few seconds later he would reemerge from a new location somewhere within 5 feet of me. This cycle repeated over and over. A ground-dwelling species, this skink knew all the ins-and-outs of his territory and could have easily slipped away never to be seen if he wanted to. It was an interesting encounter to watch unfold; he was obviously interested enough in me to check me out, and also seemed to know that I wasn't an immediate threat to him. He would have been gone had he seen me as a real threat, but instead he kept coming back and watching me.

The Five-Lined Skink probably lives in most, if not all, of the counties in Ohio; however, only about half the counties have official records of this species, which can often be hard to find. Records of this species are conspicuously missing from the central part of Eastern Ohio. This is a common theme with many reptile and amphibian species of Ohio. Counties such as Belmont, Harrison, Jefferson, and others in that immediate area are missing records of many species that are almost certainly there. These counties must not be heavily explored by surveyors. Southern Ohio is still your best bet to see this species, as well as Cedar Bog NP in Western Ohio.

A Milk Snake and a Skink

Last Friday I went on a day trip to Adams County to do some hiking. I saw many interesting things, which I'll go over in some other posts, but this blog post is dedicated to one of the snakes I saw along with a lizard.

Meet the Milk Snake, Lampropeltis triangulum. Specifically, this is the Eastern subspecies, L. triangulum triangulum. There are currently 24 recognized subspecies of Milk Snake in the world; however, there are ongoing debates about classification of these subspecies, specifically whether they should be classified as separate species or kept as subspecies. The colors of the Eastern Milk Snake are variable and can be darker than this individual to lighter. They are typically anywhere from 24 to 36 inches in length.

The Eastern Milk Snake can be found in meadows, forests, and even occasionally in towns. They are a constrictor, meaning they will wrap around their prey (mostly rodents) and squeeze them hard enough to suffocate them. When handling this nicely sized adult, I could definitely notice the strong muscles it possessed as it wrapped its body around my hand.

Every time I went to take a photo of him, he would follow the camera lens.

Eastern Milk Snakes typically hunt at night and hide during the day under logs and rocks. The interesting name "milk snake" comes from the old idea that they use to milk cows at night. Since they hunt mice, they would many times be found by farmers in mice-infested barns. These barns would occasionally be cow barns, so for whatever reason the farmers gave rise to the thought that they would milk their cows at night. This is a ridiculous, and false, thought however.

I've heard some people say Eastern Milk Snakes are docile snakes. After my encounter with this individual, I would question whether that is true. This guy bit me a total of five times while I was taking pictures of him. However, this nonvenomous species has very small teeth and can barely puncture skin making their bites more funny than painful. (There are only three venomous snakes in Ohio. These are the Copperhead, Timber Rattlesnake, and Eastern Massasauga.) This guy did leave a few marks on my skin, but only drew a little bit of blood on one of the five bites. The bites felt more like a sharp pinch than anything.

Sorry for the really bad quality. I couldn't get any closer to this very skittish skink.

Last up we have a skink, a type of lizard. Specifically what skink species? Well, that's debatable. There are three species of skink in Ohio. At first glance, this skink could be a male Common Five-Lined Skink in breeding colors or a Broad-Headed Skink. Both are found in Adams County, but the Five-Lined is a common skink, while Broad-Headed's are very rare in Ohio. This was a larger skink, so it was either a large Five-Lined or a small Broad-Headed. I consulted the Facebook group Herping Ohio and everyone was torn. Obviously a Broad-Headed Skink would be an absolutely amazing find, but the odds are this is a Five-Lined Skink. The features needed to positively ID this species (scale placement and numbers on the head) are impossible to see on this photo, so there's no way to positively ID this. The general consensus in the end was that this is a male Common Five-Lined Skink in breeding coloration, and not a Broad-Headed Skink. Regardless, it was an awesome find for me and is only the second lizard I've found on my own in Ohio, so I was happy to get it.

Thanks for reading! I've got a lot of other posts I'm currently working on; I went from having no material to write about to having more material than I know what to do with! Keep an eye out for those posts. I'll hopefully finish one every few days!

Eastern Fence Lizards

Last Sunday I joined up with some fellow Ohio University students and traveled to the Raccoon Ecological Management Area (REMA) in Vinton County. The goal of the trip was to capture as many Eastern Fence Lizards as we could in order to collect habitat data and later collect data on the individuals themselves.

Here are 7 of the 9 individuals we captured that day. I'll explain how the capturing process worked later in the post. Anyway, those are all Eastern Fence Lizards, Sceloporus undulatus. Now, you might think "Lizards? In Ohio?" But it's true; most people don't think of Ohio as a home for lizards, but we actually have 5 species (Eastern Fence Lizard, Common Five-Lined Skink, Broad Headed Skink, Little Brown Skink, and the non-native Common Wall Lizard). Eastern Fence Lizards are found in southern and eastern parts of Ohio, where hills and forests are the norm.

Eastern Fence Lizards are a smaller lizard; they only reach lengths of 4-7.25 inches long. As you can see, they can easily fit in the palm of your hand. They like to bask in the sunlight on rocks, fallen logs, and other similar things in the forest. You will also find them on trees; in fact, they will many times run up trees to get away from anything.

This is the underside of a male individual. This view is something most people don't see unless you have a lizard in hand, like we did. The sparkling blue is brilliant, even more so in person than in the photo above. Males also have some blue under their head, but the females will get blue there as well.

So how in the world did we catch a small, quick lizard? Have you ever seen people on TV try to catch alligators by putting a snare around its head? That is basically the same thing we did, except the snare was very tiny. As you can see above, one of the students is holding a fishing rod out toward the lizard, which is the tiny thing on the right side of the base of the tree. At the end of the fishing rod is the tiny snare. You would simply try to get as close as you can to the lizard without scaring it off, reach over with the fishing rod, put the snare around the lizard's head, then carefully yank it so the snare closed around the head. And now you have a captured lizard! The hardest part, though, is trying to find the lizards in the first place to snare. They blend in so well with their surroundings that it takes a very sharp eye to find one.

This is the lizard that I personally captured. It was a very calm individual; it never tried to bite me when I was holding it. I was, however, bitten the next day when I was helping gather stamina data. Their mouths are so tiny that it only feels like a small pinch.

We also looked for snakes, but sadly only found one. This is a Wormsnake, Carphophis amoenus. I believe this individual is one of the Midwestern Wormsnakes, a subsecies. Wormsnakes are small snakes found in the southern parts of Ohio. Wormsnakes burrow in the dirt and leaf debris, searching for food. As a result, people do not see them often, even though they can be really common. This one was only found because someone decided to flip the rock it was hiding under. Timber Rattlesnakes have also been found in the area we were at and we were all really hoping to find one, but sadly we didn't see any.


Reptiles weren't the only things we came across on the trip. Spring bird migration is really starting to pick up, and this trip turned up a few singing Black-and-White Warblers and a singing Prairie Warbler. Keep on the lookout for migrants these next few weeks!