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Project Noah Nature School
By day, I'm an IT professional. By night, I'm a roaming naturalist. I love Missouri, being a native, but I love the outdoors everywhere.
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Thanks for the ID. I have another Widow Skimmer from a previous spotting, but it looks different. The body is a completely different color (though the black bars on the wings are similar and the overall shape and size is the same).
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/774...
What do you think?
Awesome, thanks for your help!
Some three-toeds have four toes. The lack of a pattern on the plastron rules out ornates, which have patterns on the plastron (bottom shell) similar to the pattern on the carapace (top shell).
Red-sided Gartersnake is a subspecies, so you are correct!
Probably a broad-headed skink as mentioned above, but five-lined skinks look similar in breeding colors. The way to tell is a look at the upper labials (scales on the lips) and relative size. If you can get a close-up of the head next time, it'd help narrow down the species!
Woodhouse's would be my guess. Do you have a dorsal shot or a close-up of the head or belly?
This doesn't quite have the look of an ornate box turtle and many three-toeds have similar patterns. In the future, be sure to get a plastron (bottom part of the shell) photo to include to tell for sure. Ornates have an intricate pattern on their plastron as well. Three-toeds rarely have any pattern but are normally a plain yellow or tan color with very few markings at all.
Probably Solomon's Seal or False Solomon's Seal. Did you see it flower? Either should still have fruit if you weren't able to check for flowers earlier this spring.
