Here's a pic of some habitat I'm trying to put together. In the front is an ephemeral pond, in the back is a hibernaculum. The pond filled up this last spring (first year for it) with about 4 foot of water. It was great to see the frogs move into it over the course of the summer. We had 5 species resident by mid summer. Along the back of the pond are cement slabs from our garage re-do. A few red-sided garters and a couple radix moved in by late summer. They are protected from the multitude of predators we have here once within these rocks.

Just visible in the back, right side of the pic is the hibernaculum. Its the second one I've built and quiet a bit bigger than the first - not as deep, but more area. I hope to see many snakes emerge from these rocks next spring! My hunch is that these two things - good cover and good areas to hibernate are the chief limiters of snake populations. Maybe this little experiment will help me find out.

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