In the warm, early morning light, we walk for miles through the forest, looking into burned out stumps and under fallen trees, hoping to spy a string of diamonds with a rattle at the end. Finding an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake would be the epitome of a North Carolina herping trip. It's great when we find any of the three rattlesnake species found here, but the Diamondback is by far the most elusive. I've never been on a trip where one was found. It always seems to be the friend of a friend on some other trip who found one. These impressive snakes can grow to 6 feet in length - the record being 8 feet! I'm sure it would be exhilarating to see one in the wild, but it looks like today will not be the day.

About midday we walk through the woods picking up boards and tin in the shade. Nothing would be under a piece of tin in this sun - they are so hot, we can't even touch them, let alone pick them up. Under rotting planks of wood in the shade we find several slimy salamanders. Even this spot isn't as moist as I would expect for these guys. As hot and dry as it is, the lizards are still scurrying all over the place.

In a small stretch of road during the day we find two Eastern Glass Lizards dead on the road. They are not near one another, and one was found earlier in the day, the other later. But this shows that they are the only animals on the move with the sun high in the sky. They are curious creatures: lizards without legs. Many people look at them and ask why they are considered lizards and not snakes, and there are actually many reasons. But if you look at their face, you can see they have a very lizard-like look to them. This is because they have a movable eyelid and an ear opening like a lizard, which gives away their family lineage immediately. There are many other physiological characteristics that make them lizards, but that's for another time.

Though we have not been finding a lot of snakes, we've actually been building quite a species list. Today we find a Red-bellied Watersnake, a Brown Watersnake, and a Northern Watersnake. There is a dead Cornsnake on the road in Maysville near a corn field, which brings up tales of Cornsnakes being found in baskets of Indian corn, and changing Maysville to Maizeville. More lizards top off the day and we decide to go to Mattamuskeet first thing in the morning.