First snake observations of the year

[joeysgreen]

It's been a while since I've contributed an original post so I thought I'd share some pictures of the herp's I've been turning up. My first snake of the year was a rough earth snake, Virginia striatula. About an hour later I found my second, a prairie ringneck snake, Diadophis punctatus arnyi. Later in the day I found a massive red-sided garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis, basking at pond's edge. It was easiest the largest garter snake that I've even seen, rivally some of the captive monsters I've seen posted elsewhere on these forums. I didn't measure it, but it was approximately 3' long, with a girth approaching 2" diameter (though she was inflated in defense). The head was impressive. Needless to say, at first glance it was assumed to be a medium sized Nerodia. Unfortunately, forums as they are, uploading photos didn't work out as well as I'd like, so the most impressive snake I have to show, gets the least impressive photo.

Ian