questions about looking for garter snakes

[Selkielass]

These day lilies border a parking area near some excellent garter habitat. Beyond them is a small mowed meadow, then scrubby weeds, woods, river and swampy seasonal wet areas.

The flower beds are the best cover in an open sunny area close to the dense wet woods these snakes like for food and reproduction- they're also safe refuge from the lawnmower.

Garters in clumps of grass dive into the thatch and the tunnels in it when danger approaches- its extremely hard to spot them as they flee between hummocks. The daylilies are isolated, surrounded bythe wood chips, very short grass, and gravel. Snakes are reluctant to leave their clump, but when they do they are fairly easy to spot until they reach the woods.

[jwolfe152]

wow it may be a little hard for me to find them in the day lilies here there is a huge area with nothing but them then maybe a foot of tall grass then a dirt/trail for atvs/dirt bikes, then, more grass then wet woods, because the canopy is so thick there i barely any sun coming through, but i still might try on my hands and knees opening my finger on the ground and going through everything. its raining here right now but it is supposed to get nice and sunny at some point

[jwolfe152]

well i went to mow grass today at my mom and dads. last time i went i tried the grass catcher on the mower but its to small so i took it off and set it by the tall weeds and grass at the property line,not even thinking of it working just like a sheet of wood or anything, well, i went to start mowing that area and thought i'm going to check it. i walked over to the grass catcher with very low expectations and flipped it over and wouldn't you know there sat a snake.
at first i was just looking because it was good sized for any snake i have seen in the "wild"(my parents live on the edge of a very small city (Mannington Wv Pop. 2,066 in 2011) with a little tall grass and a little bit of a forest/wooded area), but as soon as i move to get a better look the snake shot about 4 inches towards me and disappeared into a hole.

all i remember is that it was dark and the body and head looked like a garter but i really don't know what it was. i guess i was so surprised that i didn't bother to remember features. but i got a question, what is the best way in that situation to get closer to the snake? just move very slow is my guess but i really thought i was moving slow.

[ConcinusMan]

I think this will be the way I attract snakes i would like a few more to hopefully breed in a few years maybe help get people interested in them or just let some loose increase the population

Releasing more snakes into an area does not increase population. If snakes are there and reproducing, then the habitat is probably already supporting as many as it can. Adding more snakes only makes life harder for all the snakes there, causing the weakest/oldest to die off. What increases population is increase in food supply and winter survival rate. That is influenced largely by weather so population numbers naturally will vary widely from year to year. Artificially increasing the population by releasing snakes has no effect other than what I already mentioned. The excess will just die off.