Field Herping

Pelee Island Field Trip (2003)

Here are some of the field herping activities and field trips I’ve been involved with in the past.

Pelee Island

An expedition to Pelee Island has taken place every May long weekend; I attended the trips in 2001, 2002 and 2004. I’ve posted photos from the 2002 and 2004 trips, as well as a trip report from 2002.

Mudpuppy Night

Every winter, Fred Schueler runs a weekly expedition to the dam at Oxford Mills to observe mudpuppies — possibly the only place where they can be observed during winter. I’ve posted photos from 2004 and 2005.

Murphy’s Point

In 2002, we took part in an OARA field trip to Murphy’s Point Provincial Park. Our purpose was to look for black rat snakes, but we saw a lot of terrestrial salamanders instead. I’ve posted photos from that trip.

Narcisse Snake Dens

I visited the Narcisse Snake Dens twice in one year when I was eight years old — there are pictures of me from that time here and here — but didn’t return until August 2006. I’ve posted photos from that trip and have also written an article about it.

Spotted Turtle Survey

Every spring, the spotted turtle survey takes place at or near a provincial park in Ontario, the name and location of which is kept quiet to discourage poaching. I wrote an article about it in 2001, and I have some photos from the 2003 trip.

My life list is a list of all the species of reptiles and amphibians that I’ve encountered in the wild. I include both sightings and frog calls. It’s pretty heavily weighted toward southern Ontario and Quebec at the moment, a result of my lack of travel since getting into herping.

The life list indicates the first time I have seen a species in the wild — encounters with captives don’t count! Links are to photos of my first wild encounters with each species. An asterisk indicated a frog call rather than a visual sighting; in most cases that came at a later date.