First garter of the year

[GarterGuy]

FINALLY, I saw my first garter. Found him on Tues. at the local lake while hiking around. It was really warm that day....I think well into the 70's. Very pretty snake, the ground colour was a nice chocolate brown and the dorsal stipe was more orange looking then yellow.
Roy

[Stefan-A]

The second one is a very nice picture.

[adamanteus]

Good for you, Roy. Real pretty head on that snake. I'm pleased you had your camera with you.

[GarterGuy]

Yeh, I don't go anywhere with out my camara anymore. Here's a better head shot of him.....you can really see the nice rich brown colour here.

[GarterGuy]

This pic came out pretty good too.....not a great focus on the head, but shows off the colours really nice.
Roy

[adamanteus]

He's a real nice looking animal Roy.. I wish I could look forward to seeing a Garter in the wild this year. You guys are really lucky. Nice pictures to say it's in the field, you got pretty close.

[GarterGuy]

LOL....just noticed in the second pic....if you zoom in on it, you can see a reflection in the snake's eye of me taking the picture.

[adamanteus]

Wow! You DID get close. Did you have to restrain him, or did you just take these shots while he was roaming around?

[GarterGuy]

He's a real nice looking animal Roy.. I wish I could look forward to seeing a Garter in the wild this year. You guys are really lucky. Nice pictures to say it's in the field, you got pretty close.

Yeh, it's really cool having them in captivity, but I really love seeing them in the wild. I actually crawled on my stomach and laid down to get these pics. I've found that when you're on the snake's level and not standing above them, they're not as flighty....that and you can get some really great pics. Some joggers going by though probably thought I was nuts ...laying there in the mud with my camara....LOL.

[GarterGuy]

Wow! You DID get close. Did you have to restrain him, or did you just take these shots while he was roaming around?

Yeh, I really hate having to mess with a snake to take it's pic. You can usually tell when this is done, just by the snake's body positioning and general attitude. It's always better, in my opinion, to catch them in the moment. Just kind of ran into this guy while he was cruising around. Helped that there as this stump he was kind of around, think it gave him a sense of security.