Despite the late season and a high near ninety I decided to spend the day in the field.  The plan was to meet Ryan Thies at a spot in Jefferson County, MO.  As usual I was about an hour late and when I arrived Ryan was already photographing the first snake of the day, a nice little juvenile Prairie Kingsnake.  Regardless of the immediate success we new better than to expect much from the rest of the day due to the heat.  A hot walk and an hour or so later just as Ryan was stating (and I was thinking) how we were wasting our time I flipped a nice Red Milk.  Thanks to a tip from another local herper we decided to move on to a new spot to look for a Timber Rattlesnake and sure enough it wasn’t long before we found one.  After a few photos it was getting late in the day so we headed back towards the car via a dry creek bed.  Flipping rocks along the way produced a Dark-sided Salamander a sub-spices I had never seen before.  If you ask me this was a pretty good way to wined up the spring season.