Some Yellowbelly Water Snakes have coppery coloration on their neck and chin.

Did you know that they bite?

A swamp-side view.

Longtail Salamanders were not hard to find if you looked in likely places.

This Cottonmouth seemed to be actively foraging along the bluff.

Sometimes when the first emerge from the swamp they have a light duckweed coating.

Plains Leopard Frog.

I thought it was cool to see this little Ringneck doing a road crossing.

Fence Lizards aren't terribly common in the area and they are quite skittish.

My hike had come to a conclusion and as I drove back on the levee on the banks of the Big Muddy River, I spotted a large snake up ahead in the distance crossing the road. As the car approached, the snake made an abrupt U-turn and headed off the road and back down the bank. But I caught that thing - my first "lifer" of the trip - a Diamondback Water Snake.

It was a great way to end the day.