During the year, we keep a list of species we’ve observed. Right now, the list is confined to vertebrates (sans fish) and plants, as that is our primary area of expertise. The vertebrates are kept on a list while the plants are kept in our head (for now).

The strategy here is to mark off species as we observe them. Obviously, most or all of these species are here each year, but the fun is keeping track of the observations. And staying on top of actually updating the list, which can be a challenge if you lost it for months at a time like we did last year.

For 2013, we neglected the list for much of the year and ended up with a pretty short bird list. The herps (amphibians and reptiles) are also tracked through my field notes, so they are pretty easy to reconstruct. Most mammal sightings are memorable enough to build from memory.

The herp list deserves comment. The year 2013 was the first one that we did not observe a racer at our place. Racers (Coluber constrictor) are one of the most common snakes in Missouri and we’ve seen dozens around our place since we moved in. We even found a racer nest in 2011. We did observe at least two coachwhips (Coluber flagellum), a close relative but much less common. We also saw a glass lizard (Ophisaurus attenuatus) (see photo), a common but infrequently-encountered legless lizard.

Two animals we’ve never found here are fence lizards (Sceloporus consobrinus) and any salamander species. These two are arguably characteristic of the Ozarks, but they are apparently not here. My theory for the salamanders is that we are right at the edge of the Ozark / Great Plains boundary, the latter being inhospitable to our characteristic Ozark salamander species. Plus, we are on sandstone, which does not provide the same microhabitats as limestone, the common bedrock in most of the Ozarks. I am befuddled by the lack of fence lizards, though they also appear to be scarce in the Great Plains until you get west of the Flint Hills in Kansas.

Still, I’m hoping for a newt or a tiger salamander or something someday . . .