My first garter hunt

[Reptar!]

Very cool finds man. Keep up the good work. And to Philminator I would say the early morning is when I have seen the most activity. And in the evening before they go in for the night when they are soaking up the last heat for the day. If you can only get out in the heat of the day try flipping boards or logs or anything you think they will be under. Also near a water source you will have better luck. And most of all, just stay with it. If you are only trying to find one then its only a matter of time before you find one.

[ConcinusMan]

Good tips. I agree.

[Philminator]

Very cool finds man. Keep up the good work. And to Philminator I would say the early morning is when I have seen the most activity. And in the evening before they go in for the night when they are soaking up the last heat for the day. If you can only get out in the heat of the day try flipping boards or logs or anything you think they will be under. Also near a water source you will have better luck. And most of all, just stay with it. If you are only trying to find one then its only a matter of time before you find one.

Thanks I'll keep those times in mind.

[RedSidedSPR]

They are AWSEOME!! I love the solid one.

I look for garter every day and (no one believes me) I have only found 2... my whole life of herping. Which is about 5 years. One is my garter. I bought my other two.
Pitiful right? I have the worst luck herping.

[HazAnga]

Your 5th one isn't a garter. That's why the head looks "different" as you were saying. It's a Storeria dekayi.(Brown snake, A.K.A. Dekay's snake) Not sure if this one is the same as the 5th, but this snake is also a dekayi and a particularly pretty one too! These guys don't like heat at all and usually will only eat slugs. Keep him cool.




The solid colored one is definitely a female, and probably gravid.

Thanks for the tip on the brown snake, I didn't know that. and yes it is a pretty one, but I have to say that it does have a couple war wounds on it, I don't know what it's from, but it looks like it was done a long while ago because it was all healed up.
And the solid one looks as if it's still a baby, it's pretty small, the picture is a closeup lol, but how can you tell it's a female?

[HazAnga]

And also i did a quick search, and I believe the one i brought home is a Northern brown snake (Storeia dekayi dekayi)

But i went out again today... Only saw 3 garters, and they all looked the same and around the same size
I got a picture and a very short video (because somehow the camera went to video mode in my pocket, and I was holding a camera in one hand and a log with a piece of asphalt on it in the other so changing it would have for sure lost me a shot, eventually the snake slithered away)

This is the short video, if you click on it you should be able to see it

And I saw this guy on the side of the path on my way back to the car

[ConcinusMan]

And the solid one looks as if it's still a baby, it's pretty small, the picture is a closeup lol, but how can you tell it's a female?

Lots of experience. It just seems awfully thick in all the right places to not be gravid in spite of it's small size but I could be wrong about her being gravid. Definitely female though.

To be more specific about what tells me it's female, that is a heavy bodied snake. If you'll notice how easy it is to tell, even by looking from above, where the tail starts. The tail is short and tapers abruptly. Starting right at the cloaca, going upward toward the head, the body suddenly gets thick. In other words, the body is thick all the way to the cloaca, then all the sudden, it gets thinner really quick.

If I were looking at a male, the body would be thinner and gradually get thinner all the way to the tail tip and I wouldn't be able to tell where the tail begins by looking at it from above. If that were simply a heavy bodied male, the tail would taper (get thinner) gradually, and it would be longer and not so offset from the body.

[kibakiba]

Perhaps it's chubby. Really chubby. If you didn't know how big or old Pumpkin was, a day after eating she could pass off as a gravid snake I'm sure

[charles parenteau]

Here's the other one I brought home for a bit

A belly shot

I like how solid the back colour is and then the dorsal stripe


I plan on going back to that spot myself tomorrow after I do a little lawn cutting, I'd be there early afternoon... when is usually the best time to go out and find them?

this snake is one of most beautiful i've ever seen really clean -sharp-look spacial juste awesome find!!

[RedSidedSPR]

this snake is one of most beautiful i've ever seen really clean -sharp-look spacial juste awesome find!!

I agree. I want one