Snake ID please

[bulrush]

Found this snake in May 2007. Sorry for the pic it's the best I have. I thought it was some type of garter. Tongue was red with black tip. But what kind of garter is it?

Snake is about 24-26 inches long. It tried to run away first, but I caught it and it was pretty gentle.

Note: this is a side pick showing orange-red bars and it had no yellow stripes at all. It does not match the pic of easter garter snakes which all have the black with 3 yellow stripes (one stripe is dorsal).

Thanks.

[zooplan]

Hello Chuck,
this could be an eastern too.
It would be helpful to see a side view of the head.

[Odie]

Hi, from Oregon, Chuck

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard. That's an eastern, IMO.

[ssssnakeluvr]

definitely eastern, t sirtalis sirtalis....common for them to have red and orange colors like that.

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

thats a very nice eastern

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

as the others say you have a lovely eastern garter snake!

[bulrush]

Thank you for all your comments. It has been quite a challenge to ID this snake, as all the books and posters only show pics of the "classic" pattern, 3 yellow tripes on black. Though a few books mention the snake has "highly variable coloring". If there was a book showing all the color/pattern variants and where they are found I would buy it in a minute.

[bulrush]

p.s. Someone asked for a pic of the head. Are you trying to see the number and pattern of plates on the head? If so I will try to get a good quality pic of the head.

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

you dont need to, its an eastern for sure, but what u can do it take a picture of the whole snake so we can see the whole thing

p.s. Someone asked for a pic of the head. Are you trying to see the number and pattern of plates on the head? If so I will try to get a good quality pic of the head.