Clonophis kirtlandii
(Kennicott, 1856)
Scott Co., Indiana. June 28, 2008.
It took several tries to find my first Clonophis, and when I did, I had a lens fog issue with my camera (several days of mucking around in southern Indiana during significant rain events). Happily, Photoshop helped to pull a picture out of the fog (top photo below). I’ve seen a handful of Kirtland’s snakes since then but my big goal is to find them in my home county, where they haven’t been recorded since the 1940’s.
Like the Blanding’s Turtle, no good descriptive common name has stuck to the Kirtland’s Snake, which is named after the naturalist Jared P. Kirtland. This snake was also referred to as Cora Kennicott’s Snake, after the wife of Robert Kennicott. This was apparently a short-lived custom among early naturalists.
My Flickr album for this species is here.
HerpMapper records for this species are here.
