Recent Field Trip

[masterpastor]

I went on a field trip with a good friend of mine from here in Des Moines to the Council Bluff/Omaha area looking for Radix. We found 82 (saw 91). I posted several pics on my blog: Iowa Reptiles

By the way, I found out about this forum from one of the forum members. He's a great guy and I am glad to have him as a new acquaintance.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

welcome to the forum! most of the "eastern" garters you have pics of in your blog are actually Red sided garters, (one subspecies apart from the eastern) Nice pics! Love the bull snake!

[guidofatherof5]

Nice to see you on the forum.
It was nice meeting you the other day.
You are welcome at the Ranch anytime.
Unless I'm sleeping.

[masterpastor]

Yeah, from the field trip I have learned how most of what I thought was an Eastern was actually a Prairie Garter snake. Looking forward to learning and growing in my knowledge of this snake that I haven't really had too much of a focus on over the years but am gaining a high appreciation for it.

[PINJOHN]

thank you for sharing you herping adventures with us, vicariously is the only way lots of us can have these experiences, so that makes them even more important to us, you also made it to the ranch yet another reason to be envious,
only the one negative not sure we enjoyed the comparison between our beloved garters and cockroaches.
and welcome from a very rainy Liverpool

[indigoman]

Welcome to the forum, Thank you for shareing your pics.

[mustang]

Council Bluff/Omaha area looking for Radix. We found 82 (saw 91).

By the way, I found out about this forum from one of the forum members. He's a great guy and I am glad to have him as a new acquaintance.

WTH!!!! Steve would you so kindly reverse the polarity of your snake magnet for the weekend...please ya know, since your such a great guy and all

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, from the field trip I have learned how most of what I thought was an Eastern was actually a Prairie Garter snake.

Prairie garters are red sided garters although the former common name isn't as widely used. But anyway, that's why they all have Latin names so there's no confusion. I found it was quite useful to learn their Latin names. Perhaps you will to.

Both are Common garter snake (applies to all T. sirtalis')
Subspecies "eastern" garter is T. sirtalis sirtalis
Subspecies "Prairie Garter" A.K.A. "Red Sided garter" is T. sirtalis parietalis.
Subspecies "California Red-Sided" is a different snake - T. sirtalis infernalis.

And that concludes our lesson for today.

[Plissken]

Awesome to see another person from Iowa. Those are some great pictures, all the more reason I need to find the time to go out to CB. I was actually only an hour or so away for Memorial Day, no time though. Good luck with the black and white's.