2012 A Lean Wild Ranch Year

[guidofatherof5]

This year on the Ranch has been a very lean year for seeing wild baby scrubs. Usually they are plentiful and under most debris in the area. With the 2012 drought I have seen zero babies until last night.
I was out front and heard something in the leaves that had collect in a basement window sill. Thinking it was a radix I investigated. When I saw 20 crickets jumping around I was disappointed until I spotted this little dark phase female.
I brought her in for a drink and this afternoon she had a meal. She will be staying inside for the Winter.
She is one dark phase girl and I can't wait to see her after a shed.
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/12fallfemale.jpg
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/12fallfemale1.jpg
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/12fallfemale2.jpg
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/12fallfemale3.jpg

[infernalis]

Same here in NY Steve.. Snake sightings have been rare, Nature can be a mother..

[snake man]

Cool looking snake.

[i_heart_sneakie_snakes]

She is very pretty. <3 She's lucky you found her!!!

[Invisible Snake]

Nice find Steve, that's a good looking scrub.

[katach]

Awww, she is really pretty!!

[Steveo]

Same here... found a few adults in the spring before it really heated up, but other than bull snakes I'm not really finding anything. Hoping to get some more action as we cool down. Average high for August is about 83 but we're still above that almost every day. It's been a few weeks since we had anything more than a sprinkle.

[ProXimuS]

What a cutie! She's got a good place to stay:D

[-MARWOLAETH-]

It's the opposite problem over hear,it's to wet and cold for the native herps.I hoped one day the weather behaves enough to allow me to see a Grass snake or an Adder.It's really annoying that I've never seen a snake in the wild and people who hate snakes always see them.When we had a nice sunny day I went down to the beach and saw 5 common lizards on the same coastal path!It was great because I'd never seen this species before.

[InsanePirateDragon]

Thats a gorgeous little girl.

But yeah, another lean year here too. So far I've only seen one snake (the grumpy garter that tried to take my hand off numerous times)

And usually this time of year, I'm swimming in Dekays but not this year which is really unusual.

I miss all the wild snakes.

[guidofatherof5]

I think this was one of those leaning out the population years.
Only the smartest and strongest are going to survive.

[EasternGirl]

What a cutie! Glad you took her in and gave her a nice home for the winter. Well, snakes have been non-existent in my yard this year...but like I have said, they all seem to be in my neighbor's yard. Now I just found out that my neighbor's yard has been declared a wildlife habitat by the Wildlife Federation. Which is very cool. My neighbor works hard to do a lot of organic gardening and set everything up in the yard to meet natural wildlife habitat standards. It would be great for the garters if the foxes, dogs, and neighborhood cats didn't like it so much! So..instead...they bring the snakes to me!

[Selkielass]

Harsh year indeed. Worms are scarce and I haven't. Seen any MI snakes since June.
Saw a couple garters down in Pennsylvania but both had been injured by a neighbors cat.

[chris-uk]

I think this was one of those leaning out the population years.
Only the smartest and strongest are going to survive.

If that's the case you want to be on the lookout for yearlings next year - they will have survived through a tough summer and winter, so may make good breeders.

[guidofatherof5]

If that's the case you want to be on the lookout for yearlings next year - they will have survived through a tough summer and winter, so may make good breeders.

Just caught/released a male and female 2nd year T.radix in the backyard.

[guidofatherof5]

She shed today. She must has just come out of opaque phase when I found her.
She's beautiful. Photos to come.