Hi from Olympia Washington!

[Josh_r]

New to this forum but definitely not to herping or thamnophis. I have been interested in critters since I was about 6. I got into serious herping when I moved to Arizona at the age of 20. I saw some amazing things down there. Brown vine snakes, green rat snakes, mountain rattlesnakes, coral snakes, Mexican hooknose snakes, mountain kings, and many other amazing animals. Had many encounters with several thamnophis species as well. 6 years later, I moved back to Washington state. I have not done much herping here as I have not made the time and quite honestly I don't have anyone to go herping with. I have made a few trips to zonata country as well as some top notch salamander habitats around here, but most of my herping trips since I've been back have consisted of a drive to northern California. Anyhoo, I have never paid too much attention to thamnophis until the past couple years. I remember when I was younger finding various color morphs of ordinoides, even blues and red stripes, bluish pugets too. Too bad I didn't realize how interesting they really are back then. Seems garters are no where near as common as they used to be when I was younger. Anyhoo, I have really taken a liking to concinnus and certain locals of infernalis and fitchi. I have never found fitchi in the northwest but I have found them in the yosemite area of California and I remember them being large, very pretty and very impressive!

So now I'm going to explore my interest in this genus. I just wish I had found this forum sooner

Josh

[Stefan-A]

Welcome aboard.

[guidofatherof5]

Nice to have you with us Josh.

[mustang]

Welcome! Im Robert

[brain]

Welcome Josh.
Yea "If only" when we were younger I too would have SF's in my collection.

[ssssnakeluvr]

welcome to the forum!!! quite fond of fitchi myself.... am breeding Utah fitchi =) there have been some big ones found in Idaho too...I used to have one that was clsoe to 3 feet long, and a big breeder, Scott Felzer, was given one years ago from Idaho that was close to 4 feet long! I also work with concinnus, blue and normals, and have blue pugets.

[katach]

Welcome to the forum! Do you keep any garters right now?

[Josh_r]

Thank you for all the warm welcomes! Very pleasant compared to some other forums i've been on. I look forward to getting to know people on here and getting to know some thamnophis too!

Welcome to the forum! Do you keep any garters right now?

I dont keep any garters right now. As of now, i keep some dart frogs, mantellas, and bumblebee toads. I have always wanted to get me a pair of concinnus though. lately, ive found myself wanting a pair of infernalis too

I used to keep many hots back in the day, various rattlesnakes, coral snakes, and arboreal vipers.... but those days are over. now that I cannot keep those guys, I didn't know what I wanted to keep. thamnophis!! Charina bottae would be cool too!

Is there anyone on here from around the olympia area at all?

[Josh_r]

OH!! for anyone interested, here is my photobucket page with lots of herp pics from when I lived in Arizona

Pictures by pascoman81 - Photobucket

[brain]

Is there anyone on here from around the olympia area at all?

Michael, Whidbey Island, WA