Hi Guys!! I went out and did some field herping today, I had a great time at my favorite lake. The garters that live at this lake are absolutely, positively, MASSIVE, every one I found was a solid 2.5 foot or large and heavily gravid. The garter population thrives at this lake because it is a very remote lake with few visitors and a toad population so thick you struggle not to step on a toad with every step you take! Right now, they are tadpoles, and the entire coast of the lake is so thick with tadpoles you can't see into the water! In a few months there will be so many baby toads you will step on them no matter how hard you try not to. A lot of the garters I found today had recently eaten a large toad.

It was an overcast day but perfect, the snakes were all out and about. One interesting thing for me to note is that all of the garters I found today were sitting out in plain sight in the grass, curled up, and always with another snake, I only found 2 that were alone. They would not move until they were SURE I was coming for them, in fact I did not miss a single snake I dove for today. I found 6 ringnecks, 1 redbellied snake, a bushel of gravid female eastern garters, 1 HUGE female water snake, 6 or 7 male water snakes, and 1 large female smooth green snake (that was basking right out in the open).

I also caught the largest garter snake I have EVER caught today. absolutely massive... the pictures I got of her, do not do her size any justice, her thickest part was as thick as my own wrist... picture a large captive raised female that has eaten mice it's entire life... this snake was probably bigger yet. Big enough to eat a small rat! And she wasn't even aggressive, didn't musk, didn't flip out, she was totally confident I wasn't gonna eat her. Even my boyfriend just could not believe the size of that snake. It would have been tempting to keep her just for show but a snake that has grown to that size and has survived long enough to grow to that size deserved to live the rest of her life out right there. She was gravid and will probably produce 50-60 babies easily.

So here are a few photos from today!







This water snake was not afraid, in fact when I stretched out my hand towards him and wriggled my finger, he stretched outward to investigate me and even touched me!