Snake Cover Boards

Snake Cover Boards

Have you gone out to your wood pile to retrieve a log, and end up disturbing a creature that was using that log as a home? You’re likely not alone. Snakes, like many other animals, tend to use woody debris as shelter. While some are quite put off by the idea of critters living in regularly accessed wood piles, we used it to our advantage.

In order to get an understanding of species richness (what kinds of snakes) and abundance (how many snakes) are here in Litchfield/Morris, we established 30 “snake cover board” piles around the property. The cover boards consist of slab wood, left over from saw mill operations, that were cut to about 2 foot long sections. 

Where can you find these snake cover boards? They have been placed around the edge of the various fields that White Memorial maintains within its wooded property. These fields act as vital habitat for many species, and the snakes are likely to be found there as there is ample sun, food, and shelter.

It may not look like much, but that small brown spot in the grass in the middle of the photo is the pile. It could be easily overlooked if not being actively looked for. 

 Common Garter Snake
Photo: CT DEEP

What species of snake are found in the piles? We regularly encounter the Common Gartersnake (Thmnophis s. sirtalis) and Red-bellied Snake (Storeria o. occipitomaculata).

Red-bellied Snake
Photo: Tom Tyning WesternMassnaturalist.org

Other species that can be observed include, but are not limited to, the Ring-necked snake, Milksnake, and Eastern Rat Snake. 

If you’d like to check a snake cover board out, there is an easily accessed one on the main property of White Memorial. It is between the saw mill and Ongley Pond. It is the one pictured here. Snakes are likely to be found in the warm summer months.

For more information about Connecticut's snakes, see CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Here is a link to their page on Snakes. 

Vegetation Management Near Snake Cover Boards and Songbird Nest Boxes

Trimming small shrubs and vines near snake cover boards prevents the boards from getting shaded
 and maintains consistant performance of these monitoring tools.

We manage the vegetation near some of our wildlife monitoring projects to make sure they operate consistantly.  The vegetation near our snake cover boards and songbird nest boxes needs to be trimmed back at least once a year.  Most of the vegetation consists of invasive plant species that would overtake the projects if we did not intervene.  We monitor snakes and cavity nesting songbirds in early successional and grassland habitats because these species indicate the quality of these habitats.  The snake species that occupy our cover board piles include Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis), Redbelly Snake (Storeria occipitomaculata), Northern Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi), Northern Ringneck Snake (Diadophis punctatus), Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon), and Milk Snake (Lampropeltis triangulum).

Coverboards

As of late we've been keeping on top of our two coverboard monitoring projects. One is the Amphibian and Reptile Survey and the other is the Snake Coverboard Monitoring Project. 

Scattered throughout the property are innocent-looking planks of wood that serve as habitats for both salamanders and snakes alike. These reptiles and amphibians prefer the cool, moist habitat that the boards create. The snake boards are set up in a row while the amphibian boards are set up in a grid. Our job for each project is simple: Drive out to the locations, flip the boards, and see what's underneath. We then record the species found at each site.

Amphibian Coverboards laid out on forest floor

The ultimate purpose of the amphibian coverboard survey is to keep track of the Jefferson Salamander; an endangered species who's population is declining in the state of Connecticut. This decline is due to the fact that the species is sensitive to habitat fragmentation and disturbances. With this in mind, we want to find out if these salamanders tend to hangout in certain habitats. If they do, we will then be able to focus conservation efforts on these habitats.

When monitoring the snake coverboards, we are not looking for a specific species (though we don't mind finding rare species if they show up). Rather, the goal is to keep track of the snake species diversity on our property. We also want to know where these snakes are generally located and what kinds of habitats they prefer.

We check these boards at least once a month and avoid checking them too frequently. This is because we don't want to inadvertently dissuade these creatures from coming back. So if you happen to run into these boards, we ask that you avoid disturbing them. 

Monthly Snake Cover-Board Check -- August 2011

Eastern Garter Snake basking on Osmunda Ferns.
photo by James Fischer

(l to r) Madeline Bove, Twan Leenders, and Becca Solnit peeling
through the Snake Cover-Board Pile at Apple Hill Lower Field.
photo by James Fischer

Twan Leenders, CT Audubon Society Conservation Biologist, joined us yesterday to see our Snake Cover-board Monitoring program.  It was great having Twan because he offered us all kinds of advice about how can improve and modify the program.   It also gave us an opportunity to show him unique parts of the property that we conserve.  We encountered 3 species: 8 Eastern Garter Snakes, 3 Northern Redbelly Snake, and 1 Eastern Milk Snake.  We check all of the 12 cover-board piles on the property between 12:30 p.m. through 15:10 p.m. EST.  Madeline Bove, Ryan Gannon, and Becca Solnit were also present, which begins to explain why this session was so efficient, because we had so many hands and eyes present that searching for the snakes.

Monthly Snake Cover-Board Check

On Wednesday June 29 and July 6, Jamie, fellow volunteer Ryan Gannon, and I conducted the monthly survey of the 12 snake cover-boards that are set up around the property. The snake cover-boards are piles of 30 to 40 boards, which are loosely stacked so they are about 6 inches high and 4 feet long. The boards are made of both soft and hard woods, and the variability of these piles creates lots of fun nooks and crannies for snakes to explore as they find different climate conditions to lie in.

On the 29th, we started off checking the cover-boards in Litchfield, including 2 sets along North Shore Road, and piles in fields behind Harris Rd., Windmill Hill, and Cedar Pond. While we did have the opportunity to do lots of good vegetation management, we found no snakes that morning. Perhaps, we hypothesized, snakes aren’t exactly early risers. Maybe it had something to do with the weather conditions—just above 70˚F, 50% cloud cover, and a light breeze from the northwest. Or maybe all of the snakes in Litchfield have decided that Morris is a much nicer town to live in. Whatever the reason, our afternoon survey of the remaining cover-boards along Alain White Road, and Apple and Laurel Hill, was much more successful.

We found our first snakes of the day in the lower field on Apple Hill.  We found 2 juvenile gartersnakes and 1 juvenile ring-neck snake in this pile of cover-boards. The cover-boards in the upper field on Apple Hill yielded 1 adult gartersnake. Our remaining finds that afternoon included 1 adult gartersnake and 1 juvenile northern watersnake in the Alain White Rd. field as well as 2 adult garter snakes back at Ongley Pond.

Ring-neck snake

Northern watersnake

Yesterday, we realized that we had forgotten to check the cover-board pile at the Laurel Hill field, so headed over at about 11am.  This pile turned out to be the big winner with 1 adult gartersnake, 3 adult red-bellied snakes and 1 red eft.

Red-bellied snake

Red-bellied snake's red belly

Welcome Our New Intern, Olivia Riccio!

Olivia Riccio, Junior Bachelor of Science Biology Candidate
 at Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, CT

Olivia has a strong interest in Biology and is helping us with various tasks within the program.  Olivia reside in Burlington, Connecticut and will be one of our interns this summer.  She performed some maintenance on the snake cover-boards during her first visit, where she showed off her snake handling skills (See photo)!  She will occasionally post her observations to this blog, so check back often to hear what she is contributing to the program this summer.