FANTASTIC herping trip!!!!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Well, I am officially back from my gartering trip in Potter County (its in PA). I have to say first off, that it was a truly wonderful expierience, and by FAR exceeded my expectations of a herping trip. In fact, it downright spoiled me rotten. My mission in going to the farm my grandparents live on this year was to find and photograph at least one of the pretty orange faced/sided garters that I had always found at least one of in years past. And to demonstrate to you all here at thamnophis that the sirtalis in this area are usually not striped. I specifically went with finding garter snakes in mind, anything besides them was icing on the huge chocolate cake of finds. The abundance of snakes in this place is simply overwhelming. And it makes me EXTREMELY happy to see such a huge thriving population of my favorite animal on the planet. me and my boyfriend had a blast.



Friday, we arrived at the farm at about 7. from about 7 until dark is primetime to find garters hiding under things, most of them are settled in for the night. So we did our first round on the farm... and well... found a TON of snakes. There are a TON of things to turn over, look in, move around, etc on the farm. So many that often I would forget some things and have to go back to them!! The hotspots proved to be a tire laying behind the garage, a sheet of plywood laying down over a gently sloped bank by the pond, and an over turned plastic truck bed in the field. The first night we caught at least 50 snakes. All garters and a few red bellies. I hung on to a good bit of them for a quick group photo in a bucket to show their diversity and lack of stripes.



Over the course of the weekend... as we continued to do our rounds and find more and more snakes... it got noticeably harder to find them... proving that every population has a limit and that they get wise to us! I am glad to say that one female very cleverly outsmarted me by diving into the weeds and at the last second, backtracking right over my foot back to an immovable rock. It was a smart move and she won! I told Eddie, lets leave her be, she has obviously just outwitted both of us!



The totals are as follows:

34 gravid females

about 50 juvenile garters and males

7 females that had already birthed

13 red bellied snakes

1 eastern milksnake

2 northern ring necks

1 adult ground skink



a bajillion million flies were killed by me on this trip.



and now.. what you all REALLY want. PICTURES!!!


This is garter snake poop. no lie. I grabbed four at once and look what happened!




Now for the inverts!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Here's a red eft!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Ground skink!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

meet my new pet milksnake! Tame and cute as a button! a young adult male... he's a real sweetie pie!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Found 1.1 northern ringnecks under the same rock!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

The red bellied snakes are up next!!! these are a cousin of the dekay's brown snake... so variable.. so cute!

Gravid female silver








The only mean red belly... ever.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

now here is my FAVORITE kind of red belly.... I have only even seen two.. including this gravid female.






and finally, I found one of the super rare black-bellied red bellies I have heard rumors of. Isnt he stunning!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Here are some variety shots






Now here are the garters!!! I always save the best for last!!!!

Heres the bucket shot of SOME of the first night's catch.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Here are some random garters





Look at the eyes on this one!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]