In the area where I live you can find dozens of garter snakes a day, or none at all. The area I herp is a street that leads to some train tracks, on the left side are the tracks on the right side is a hill, basically what's left of the woods that used to be here. Now I never find snakes in the wooded area, but at the bottom of the hill, right next to the street, you can find eastern garters (if you're lucky), northern brown snakes, maybe a northern ringneck if you're lucky, and handfuls and handfuls of shorthead garter snakes. Under boards, rocks, trash, out in the open, if it's about 75 degrees, 6 pm, you can find a lot of them hiding, any earlier and warmer than that they're usually roaming out in the open.