Howdy herpsters! And welcome to Episode Twenty!  My guest is Steve Marks from Windsor, Ontario.  And at left we see composite photos of Steve engaged in tracking fox snakes.  Steve and I have been buddies for a long while now, and I am happy to get him on the show and talking about his projects and passions, which are often one and the same thing.  One of the things we talked about is the Herb Gray Eco-Highway conservation project which Steve has been a part of for many years.  The man has taken a deep dive into fox snakes and I was happy to get him talking about it!  I've also had the privilege of watching Steve radio-track one of his beloved study animals up in Windsor - the man has done a wonderful job in not only keeping fox snakes going in Windsor, but in future-proofing their populations as well.

Steve is a well-traveled fellow and we covered some of his herp adventures in detail.  I enjoyed our chat and didn't realize until near the end that we talked for nearly two hours!  Wanna meet Steve?  Come on down to Snake Road during Canadian Thanksgiving some time.  Here are some links related to this episode:

A wonderful blog post written by James Paterson about the Eco-Pass and other projects

The Canadian Herpetological Society

Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre, Steve's favorite herp charity

TRIVIA:  The teaser intro is borrowed from the 1941 film The Maltese Falcon, starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor, and adapted from Dashiell Hammett's novel of the same name.  I'm doing my best to bring back obscure phrases like "crackin' foxy" and "I won't play the sap for you!"  And if you haven't already seen it, the Maltese Falcon is worth your time.  Film noir murder mystery at its finest and heaps of obscure phrases.

FUTURE SHOW NOTE:  Speaking of obscure phrases, once again I am asking you to send me interesting herp jargon!  Get those pithy phrases and clever words to me via the show email below, and we’ll get a future episode together from the results.!

And as always, please keep the comments and suggestions coming!  The show email is somuchpingle@gmail.com, and there’s also a So Much Pingle group on Facebook, for discussion, comments, feedback, suggestions, herp confessions. maltese falcons, tips for herping better, etc.

Stay tuned for more episodes! And don’t forget to herp better!

-Mike