Please help AARC help some gartersnakes!

[joeysgreen]

I promised photos, so here they are with an update.
We have raised enough funds thanks to so many gracious people to get started in time. For most of the year the den is covered deep in snow. The snakes have been out, but it was snowing again today. A few diehard serpents tried to warm up despite the snowflakes and dreary skies. I got a lot of good photos with my crappy point and shoot camera because they were so cold they could barely move. One did a tongue flick that took over a minute.

Today was spent cutting, carrying, and hammering in hundreds of pounds of rebar stakes (I might be exaggerating the weight a bit as my muscles ache). The day ended when I busted the sledge hammer in half!

It was also a good birding day, a hobby that's growing on me as let's face it, herps are sparse in diversity up here. I still have to learn how to identify most of my birds, but I saw swainson's and redtail hawks, merlins, tree swallows, pileated woodpeckers, buffleheads, mergansers, goldeneye, geese, and another half dozen species I'm not brave enough to try and guess on.

And of course our boreal chorus and wood frogs were calling. Once thawed in the spring, not much stops them!

[guidofatherof5]

Great update and thanks for all you are doing.
Those males seem to be waiting for something, I wonder what it could be

[jwolfe152]

The same thing every other male waits for

[joeysgreen]

I'm super sunburnt again but counted 701 snakes today. Pit tagged about 50 of them. Largest was 703mm SVL and 97grams. Heaviest snake was 98grams. I'll give another update when I've organized the data and pictures

Ian