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. 

Frogs Galore at White Memorial!

Northern Spring Peeper photograped by

Ashley Hayes at White Memorial's Museum Area

Wood Frog photographed by Ashley Hayes

at White Memorial's Mott-Van Winkle Area

Green Frog photographed by Dave Rosgen

at White Memorial's Duck Pond

Bullfrog photographed by Dave Rosgen

at White Memorial's Duck Pond

Northern Leopard Frog photographed by

Dave Rosgen in White Memorial's Ongley Field

Frogs are thriving at White Memorial, thanks in part to the massive amounts of rain that have fallen here this year. In many years frogs and other amphibians that breed in vernal pools face a race against the clock to grow-up, metamorphose into their adult form, and exit the pool before it dries up. Not this year! Ample amounts of rain kept water in vernal pools and other wetlands long enough for these animals to go through this process with time to spare. Even though there wasn't much rainfall in July, our wetlands retained a decent amount of water. Frogs, and especially juvenile ones, have found that the upper reaches of floodwaters are an ideal place to hang out, wait for invertebrate animal food to come close enough to be caught, and escape into the safety of the water if predators come after them. On several occasions since Tropical Storm Irene passed through this area I've gone out to look for amphibians, storm-blown birds, and other creatures. That includes trying to get reasonably accurate counts of frogs. I found that walking the upper reaches of the floodwaters was the ideal place to find these animals, whether it was in woods, fields, or wetlands. Frogs were in all of these places. On Tuesday, 8/30/11, I went around our Lake, Windmill Hill, Ongley Pond, and Mill Field Trails, following the border of the floodwaters. I counted a total of 225 Green Frogs, 16 Northern Leopard Frogs, 10 Wood Frogs, 10 Northern Spring Peepers, 2 Gray Treefrogs, 1 Pickerel Frog, and 1 American Toad. Surprisingly, I didn't see any Bullfrogs. I also saw a 3/4" wide Eastern Garter Snake attempting to swallow a 2" wide Green Frog, a fair-sized Northern Water Snake heading towards a group of Green Frogs, and 10 Painted Turtles foraging in the shallow water. Three Belted Kingfishers at the intersection of Lake and Windmill Hill Trails were undoubtedly looking for easy pickings in the shallow water. They will eat frogs just as readily as they'll eat fish. However, I also saw small fish in the water, so the kingfishers may have been after these, too. On Friday, 9/2/11, I checked the Mill Field and Interpretive Trails and counted 43 Green Frogs, 6 Bullfrogs, 5 Northern Leopard Frogs, and 2 Pickerel Frogs. Some of these were caught by student volunteer Nicole Morin and swabbed for Chytrid fungus as part of another one of our on-going research projects. The following day, student volunteer Marcus Johansson helped me lead a walk for 16 members of the public with the focus being on amphibians and reptiles. We visited Ongley Field and Pond and the Mill Field and Interpretive Trails, checking all of the flooded areas. We counted 150 Green Frogs, 12 Northern Leopard Frogs, 5 Northern Spring Peepers, 3 Wood Frogs, 3 Bullfrogs, 2 Pickerel Frogs, and 1 American Toad. Marcus caught 3 of them for swabbing. This was very educational for the attendees. A quick check of Pine Grove 2 after our latest flooding event today (at least 4" of rain fell yesterday and last night) revealed 75 Green Frogs around pools of water.

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.