2015 Findings - Newberg, OR

[acovert]

First off, I would like to report that Cuddles is doing great. He's a little brat, but he's healthy and happy and active. I love the little jerk to death and I miss Scar, who died back in December. I'm glad I still have my little Cuddles.

On Wednesday I went out to Newberg to visit my friend, who happens to have a phobia of snakes. We decided to go for a walk at Champoeg State Park, since the weather was so nice. Since we were just beginning the month of march, I wasn't really expecting to see any wild snakes, but I forgot that this year has so far been warmer than normal (it hit 70 degrees today!). We decided to follow a trail through a field, and within a minute a garter slithered away from me, startling me. I told my friend to back off so he wouldn't panic too much and I caught the fellow. I have a few pictures of him on my phone, which I will try to post later on when I can pull them off. All told, we saw around 10 snakes that day without even looking. My poor friend found the last three, and the final one was large enough to send him running through the field because it was so large.

On Thursday my boyfriend and I were headed down to Newport, and I decide that we would stop at Champoeg again to see if we could find anymore snakes. My boyfriend grew up on a ranch down in San Diego and was used to snakes, but wasn't used to being close to any in the wild. At the ranch you kept your distance from most snakes because it was more than likely a rattler. So, while we were out there I caught a couple of the beauties and let him see them up close. We released them, of course. Mostly I wanted photos of the lovely guys, so that someone here might be able to identify the specific type of garter. As for gender, most of them appeared to be male. They had relatively thin tails that tapered gradually from the main body.

Here are the photos my boyfriend got before we set them back down and I washed my hands. Does anyone know what type of garter this is?

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[BLUESIRTALIS]

Wow! That is a very cool looking oregon red spot!

[slipknot711]

wow gorgeous!

[acovert]

So these fellows are Oregon Spotteds then? I've never seen one before.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

Yes, was that males head really that faded out orange color or is it the pic making it look like that?

so these fellows are oregon spotteds then? I've never seen one before.

[acovert]

It may not have been quite as extreme as the pic is making it look, but it was at least a bit faded orange like that.

[slipknot711]

q3.jpg i too would like to know if that faded orange was in person. this here is my normal oregon male

[Tommytradix]

heres my lil guy20150209_171601-1.jpg

[acovert]

He was more faded than both of those guys are. Is that unusual?

[Tommytradix]

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