Spring Sightings

[Faunaofthenorth]

i kno, its 57 here and yet still a little snow and cloudy a yucky day and raining

[ConcinusMan]

Not too bad today. It's partly sunny and definitely warming up.

[Faunaofthenorth]

kool thats good

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Oh sorry. I think I may have caused you to misunderstand my comment. I didn't mean to offend your intelligence or knowledge but perhaps if you saw more chicago garters and easterns you would see what I'm talking about.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdeboer152/1356772982/

Now compare that snake ^^^


to some easterns: http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos...947&si=eastern

Still say they are nothing alike?

last night on the phone Joe pointed this thread out to me... and I just want to point out that Joe lives there and he has seen more chicago garters than any of us could ever will in our entire lives. he also has seen a lot of easterns... easily as many as I have... he focuses only on just those in captivity. I actually have a very nice chicago female that he caught himself. if you really look at those two snakes, they look entirely different, they are nothing alike if you ask me! You just helped point out the differences between the two, even on a low-end chicago garter. Distinguishing chicagos from easterns is an acquired taste... you have to just kind of know what to look for! it's little things that make them different but they are different, even the chicagos that resemble easterns, until you actually sit down and look at them and realize that they don't. they are more than likely an isolated population of easterns that changed enough to become their own snake. when I look at chicagos I also go past the neck bars, everyone seems to concetrate on those heavily. and I can see different facial features and shapes than the easterns have. They have beadier eyes and a more pronounced snout!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

omg dude, we arent trying to school anyone we are just saying that what you are claiming is not absolute in totality, meaning its not set in stone, i have seen SIMILAR, not exact, SIMILAR garters that have markings SIMILAR to chicagos, they are part of the sirtalis family, you will find similar snakes every once in a while

yes, similar! that's the whole point! You can see that they are SIMILAR, they are both brown... they both have lateral stripes, some checkers... but they are not the same and the inexperienced are the ones who get them confused. Much like t.s. sirtalis "florida blue" and t.s.similis. Similis are actually named that because they bear a striking resemblance to the blustriped ribbon snake. But they also bear resemblance to the blue easterns that dwell in that area and I see so many snakes incorrectly labeled as similis it makes my head spin! Once you get to know them you clearly see they are nothing alike, and you wonder how people don't see it, because it's so obvious! But at first, even I had trouble distinguishing the two.

[Chulio]

I noticed the picture of the Chicago said it was western Racine county.
I could throw a rock from my Milwaukee county back yard and it would land in Racine county. My wife of 24 years was killed by a drunk driver in Racine county while riding her bike last year.

I may have seen Chicago Garters in the past though. There is a rock area next to the wetland behind my home and I saw some that look like that.
I will take some pictures when they appear in the near future.

I learned more about Garters in this thread than I knew before, thanks everyone.

[Stefan-A]

Sorry to hear about your wife, Chulio.

[guidofatherof5]

My condolences as well.
You are in our prayers.

[gregmonsta]

Sorry to hear that mate.

[ConcinusMan]

It infuriates me to see someone drink and drive, and I see it often. Sorry man. Welcome to the forum Stick around.