Look what I found

[jitami]

(please excuse the photo quality. Forgot my real camera in the other car and had to use my cell phone)

Went for a drive yesterday and saw this little pond and thought it looked like perfect garter habitat...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/jitami/July%2013%202008/GarterHeaven.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/jitami/July%2013%202008/GarterHeaven2.jpg

Shanley, remember when we were talking about piled up rocks for den sites?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/jitami/July%2013%202008/GarterHeaven4.jpg

In this pond we found not one, but three T.e.elegans, all eating their fill of tadpoles. Can you see it? This was the bigger of the three...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/jitami/July%2013%202008/GarterCamo.jpg

more to come....

[jitami]

The two others were both little yearlings and I couldn't resist a closer look at this little girl... (darned cell phone won't do close ups)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/jitami/July%2013%202008/GarterYearling2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/jitami/July%2013%202008/GarterYearling6.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/jitami/July%2013%202008/GarterYearling7.jpg

It was so tempting to keep her, but it would put me at my limit for elegans, and I'm fairly certain it was a little girl, so housing her with Sly would be out of the question. Hopefully she'll stay here and we can visit her again. Bye bye little one...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/jitami/July%2013%202008/GarterYearling.jpg

[jitami]

One more picture from the same area. Shows a bit of our lovely California Smoke. Air quality has improved quite a bit where I live, but it was still pretty bad up in the mountains.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v202/jitami/July%2013%202008/OutcroppingSmoke.jpg

[dashnu]

What a nice area and great find! In my area snakes love the rocks for Dens.

..also i cant see the snake in the first pictures.

[jitami]

Thanks Brett. I can't either in the first two of the pond. They're in there, but those pictures were more to show the pond. In the fourth picture(last one in the fist post) keep looking, one of the three is visible. Pic quality doesn't help, but I like the camouflage pictures. It shows how even though the snakes have these bright yellow stripes they blend into their natural surroundings perfectly.

[Zephyr]

Left and a little down from that orange thing in the water. :)

[dashnu]

i see it now... that would be a fun thread.. "Find the snake Thread"

[Loren]

very nice. Looks just like mine.

[GartersRock]

Oh oh!! I see it!

[crzy_kevo]

nice find i wish i had something like that near here

[reptileparadise]

Very nice, and pretty darn good pictures for a cell-phone!

[jitami]

very nice. Looks just like mine.

Thanks :) mine too :) Although hubby said it's head head was flatter than ours... um, yeah, hunny, it's because we're thoroughly pissing her off! :D

[jitami]

nice find i wish i had something like that near here

Thanks Kevin(& all). There are areas like that near here, but this was actually a bit of a drive. We do a lot of four wheeling and I'm slowly turning them into wheeling/herping trips :) We got there kind of late in the day... stopped by a state park on the way up to use the restrooms and ended up participating in a gold panning demo. I'd done it before, but not for a long time. Fun stuff. There were tons of trails that we didn't get to check out yesterday, so we'll definitely be going back! It was awesome garter territory. Tons of little springs, creeks, and ponds. There were also a lot of dried up waterfalls, so a spring trip is definitely planned for next year, too.

[crzy_kevo]

ya sounds like a blast
which reminds me i haven't been camping in years and i really want to

[Snake lover 3-25]

awww cool!!!!

my mom told me that i could make a den!!! now i just have to figure out how to dig a 5/6 foot hole and fill it with rocks....... but at least i have permision!!!!:D

[Zephyr]

awww cool!!!!

my mom told me that i could make a den!!! now i just have to figure out how to dig a 5/6 foot hole and fill it with rocks....... but at least i have permision!!!!:DUse your hands and a shovel.
I dug a 7+ foot deep hole two years ago just for fun. Did it in 2 hours. The hard part will be making it so snakes can get in and out of it, and also that there's appropriate space inside for a large group of snakes.
Not to mention, it's in a place relatively high above the water table and easily accessed by garters.

[Lori P]

NICE Tami!! Beautiful place and gorgeous snakes!!

[jitami]

Thanks Lori! It was fun :) We also saw snake tracks on the dusty dirt road between a steep hillside and another small pond. We didn't look too hard, but didn't find anything there. It was really neat seeing the snake tracks, though. They had to have been fresh, but I couldn't tell which way they were going. Pretty cool anyway :)

[anji1971]

Nice pictures, Tami! :) Those snakes are so pretty!
I'm still trying to find a place like that here. I've found the pond, and there are snakes there, but for the life of me cannot figure out where the dens are. No rock piles anywhere that I can see. :confused: