Flu herping: Only for the advanced and desperate. 10-21-2013

So, I've had the flu (with a slight complication) for a while.  No big deal, except I had to bow out of yesterday's herp trip with Andrea and Matt. But I hauled my carcass out of bed for work on Monday. While there, I kept hearing about how nice it was... 65° or so and sunny. The forecast for the entire future looks bleak. So after work, I pulled into Allendale on the way home in hopes of a last minute snake for 2013.

Cold pills were swirling in my bloodstream, so I wasn't looking to flip much. (I was lucky I didn't crash the car as it was!) I figured any snake worth his salt would just present himself to me, out in the open. It wasn't so. I did flip a few things, and came up with some Redbacks.


And admittedly, I flipped for Two-Lined Salamanders in a dry creek bed on purpose. I figured, I already had to blog the Redbacks, so I might as well get another species!


So, I was leaving, drifting along on a sea of painkillers and antihistamines, figuring the reptile season was over. As I approached the parking lot, I eyed a few rocks in the sun and started writing the blog in my head. "I flipped the rock and a small Garter was coiled up, looking cute and Gartery"... Pills, they do that to you.

When I knelt and flipped the rock and saw a small Garter was coiled up, looking cute and Gartery, I said aloud, "You've gotta be shitting me"!




The power of positive thinking? Just a hallucination that I managed to photograph? Or just pure dumb luck? Either way, I'm so happy to have seen this little fella. 40 minutes of walking while sick. He will probably be my last snake of 2013, and he will be in my heart all winter!

Me? I'm still sick. Haven't been to work in days. I think I'll go lay down.