May 2024 (pt. 3) the gang flip their way through the ozarks 1. western milk snake. it rained a lot through the night and we were faced with some incredibly wet cuts to traverse come morning. and yet our lingering success from the day prior boosted our morale to the point where the prospect of walking through squelching wet thorn-forests seemed almost enjoyable 2. the cut proved to be the steepest and perhaps most heavily vegetated of any i’ve ever herped—and yet our reward was this absolutely gorgeous western milk snake (same individual as in the previous pic) flipped by aiden 3. just one more look at this incredible snake in its gorgeous ozarkian habitat—it unfortunately ended up being the only one we found all morning and all afternoon 4. the aforementioned cut. this thing was no joke 5. on the way out jacob somehow incredibly managed to spot this copperhead sitting in the dense, wet grass 6. snakes were on the move all throughout the day, or so it seemed. at times it made us question if we were doing the right thing by clinging so heavily to our powerline cut flip meta. this was by far the most painful DOR of the day—a fresh hit, still moving prairie kingsnake. huge, too. morale for sure took a hit after that one 7. morale is up slightly after rob flipped these 2 specks back to back 8. aiden hiked up this cute little boxie 9. second most painful DOR of the day was this large, fresh hit slowinski’s corn snake. this would have been my first adult of the species and a lifer for all of the rest of the guys 10. back to the cuts—here’s an insitu of a baby speckled kingsnake i flipped. no. 3 for the day 11. as i was in the act of flipping my speck, aiden double flipped 2 others nearby. specktacular moment 12. rob flipped speck no. 6 13. aiden with speck no. 7 14. myself with the flip on speck no. 8 15. and then aiden flipped this insane looking eastern gartersnake. never thought i’d like a thamnophis over a lampropeltis but this snake gave a handful of our recent specks a run for their money 16. a look at his venter 17. timber rattlesnake! flipped by aiden while it was drizzling 18. close up on him 19. ozark cliff face beauty 20. in search of coachwhips