Hi!

[bkhuff1s]

Agreed

[Hollis_Steed]

Welcome to the forum from Utah! Lovin' the garters!

[ConcinusMan]

Oh shoot Izzy, you're hooked. There's no hope for you now. I know. Been there. Tried lots of snakes. I could have ten dozen other snakes and I am not content. I must have GARTER snakes or I'm not happy.

Oregon has some especially great garter snakes, including, but not limited to, Oregon Red-spotted garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis concinnus)

Where are you in Oregon? East side, west side, northwest, southern?

[Izzie]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I'm in PDX! I get out to the wilderness pretty often: Sauvie Island, the Gorge, Mt. Hood, etc but I don't see too many garters any more.

This puts me in mind of a sad story: In Vancouver, WA when I was in my early teens my brother and I lifted a plywood board in a vacant lot and I grabbed a handful of garters (11 of them!). We kept them for a few weeks and had great fun watching them - then returned them to the lot. That winter the lot was bulldozed and I never saw garters in my neighborhood again - when before they had been plentiful. This was followed by an an explosion in the spider population (dozens of them moving in waves through the grass sometimes). I can only assume the young garters had been eating the spiders.