Pelee Island Field Trip Report

On Victoria Day weekend, 23 crazy herpers from Ontario, Quebec and Michigan travelled to Pelee Island to stay at the Wilds of Pelee Island Outdoor Centre for Conservation, where they would help restore habitat and build hibernation and nesting sites for endangered reptiles and amphibians, and perhaps to catch a glance of the elusive Blue Racer (Coluber constrictor foxii). In spite of forecasts calling for rain throughout the weekend and rather cold temperatures, we did pretty well. While it was quite chilly, the weather obliged us by raining only at night (though this was a problem for some of us with less than optimal tents).

While the total number of reptiles spotted was somewhat lower than last year, that was mostly as a result of a change in our activities: we omitted a survey of the Centre property and a check of the tin and boards along a lane across from the Stone Road Alvar Nature Reserve — both of which produced copious numbers of Eastern Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis) and Brown Snakes (Storeria dekayi) last year. (By the way, about one-third of the garter snakes on Pelee Island are melanistic.) Because we weren’t consciously looking for these two species, we only came up with a handful of them. The garter snakes were usually none too happy to see us, especially the melanistics, which I’ve always found to be larger and more aggressive on the Island. And we missed finding adult Lake Erie Water Snakes (Nerodia sipedon insularum) — we found lots of them mating along the road last year, only a few hundred metres from the ferry dock — but found a number of juveniles, both last year’s young and those a year older, both of which still had their patterns.

But that was more than made up for the fact that we found more Eastern Fox Snakes (Elaphe gloydi) this year than last — including at least two juveniles born the previous year and some magnificent adults that had not yet been tagged. Fox Snakes are by far my favourite rat snake: not only are these snakes beautiful, with their black saddles on a straw-yellow background and red heads, but, at least on Pelee Island, Fox Snakes are almost universally tame. In my two visits to Pelee, I’ve seen approximately 20 captured Fox Snakes, and while some of them have musked upon capture, only one has ever tried to bite (and that was a juvenile in shed, caught during our 2001 trip). To have such a large snake to be as tame as a captive Corn Snake (Elaphe guttata guttata) from the point of capture is quite remarkable, even more so when you consider that other members of the genus Elaphe aren’t quite so laid back! It is therefore a real tragedy that the Eastern Fox Snake is in such trouble; while plentiful on Pelee Island, their range — basically, along the shores of Lakes Erie and Michigan, 80 per cent of which is in Ontario — is both limited and vulnerable.

And we did see a Racer! Well, some of us did. And even for many of us who saw one, it was “see” rather than “catch” (and I myself didn’t even see it). Not ten minutes before the Ottawa crowd had to leave the site (a tree farm) to catch the noon ferry on Monday, Stewart spotted one in tall grass, but in spite of the efforts of the entire herping party, who fanned out to try and do a systematic search, the snake eluded us. I was going to say that even that was better than the previous year, when we saw nothing at all, but then, on Tuesday morning, when most of our expeditionary force had gone home, the remaining group caught two Blue Racers and four more Eastern Fox Snakes. They had missed the 7:00 a.m. ferry (they thought it was at 8:00 a.m.) and were killing time back at the tree farm, and ended up scoring the find of the entire trip by happenstance! The rest of us, of course, hate them for it.

As far as other herps went, we also saw at least half a dozen Blanding’s Turtles (Emydoidea blandingi), a juvenile Midland Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta marginata) and a big Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina serpentina), all at Fish Point Nature Reserve, the southernmost tip of the island. We also found several salamanders in the Blue-spotted/Jefferson/Smallmouth Salamander complex (Ambystoma laterale, jeffersonianum and texanum, respectively — they often hybridize and it’s very difficult to tell apart hybrids from pure forms), at least one of which may have been a pure texanum (which are only found on the southern part of the island). Few anurans were spotted: Dave Smith caught a Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) in a canal, and Dan Hoops thought he saw something hop in the trees along the berm from Hell near Lighthouse Point, the northeastern tip of the island, which, through process of elimination, could only have been a Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor), since Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) were extirpated long ago (wetlands drained; no habitat left). It certainly couldn’t have been a Blanchard’s Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans blanchardi), which many now consider to be extirpated from Canada as well (they were only found on Pelee Island in Canada), since they were only last seen at Fish Point, on the other side of the Island.

Those of us interested in birds were amply rewarded. Eddie Sanchez from Michigan got to add a few species to his life list, and Chantel Moore (from Aylmer, Quebec) reported seeing well over 40 different species!

All in all, the trip could not be considered anything except a success. Things ran more smoothly than they did during the first year (when we, starving on Sunday night, voted Jeff off the Island); Jeff and Jenny did a marvellous job this year organizing us and keeping us fed and happy. We also had more people this year than we did last year (23 vs. 15), and fewer tasks at the Centre, so our slave labour on behalf of the Centre — building hibernacula and nesting sites, clearing savanna habitat, pulling invasive plants — was kept to a minimum. And we also had the company of a group from the Federation of Ontario Naturalists, at least one of whom was not quite sure what to make of our President’s antics around the campfire (hi there, Steve).

Many of us brought digital cameras and took a huge number of pictures; others brought pocket cameras, and Stewart Stick and Terry Cox brought serious SLR camera gear. Brian Oehring from Ottawa brought a digital video camera. The results of all our shutterbuggery are now available online at a special Pelee Island field trip web site that I’ve set up; the address is www.ontarioherpers.org/pelee. As of this writing, the site has hundreds of digital images, a link to Beverly’s trip journal, and two short videos, which I edited from Brian’s excellent footage. One is nearly ten minutes long and details the capture, measurement, and tag-implantation of Eastern Fox Snakes; the other is a silly little 90-second thing showing Dave catching that Bullfrog. More material is being added all the time; I still have to hear from a few people who’ve been holding out on me, so be sure to check back at the site from time to time!