My first garter hunt

[HazAnga]

Well this is my first time herping for garters. I went out towards where I used to live as a kid and maybe a 15 min bike ride from there is a park and through that particular part of the park a train track goes though it. And then beside the park is kind of an open area where there's lots of old railway tie's and scrap wood and other things for garters to hide under. And if you go down further there's a whole bunch of piles of sand (perfect for making dens in) there about 6 feet high or so and about 8 feet or more in diameter at the base. A co-worker of mine lives not far from there but the other way from my old house, and has been over at this place quite a few times with his sons herping for garters and other things. Well I went out today with another co-worker and his step son and we caught a total of 6 smaller garters, and saw about another 3 or 4 bigger one's.
I did bring my camera (smart thinking on my part ) so here's some pix

Here's the first 2 that we saw and caught (They were under separate railway ties but within 4 feet of each other.

This is the third one we saw, the pic is kinda blurry though, sorry

Here's another pic of the 3rd that we caught and the forth one as well, I kept the one with the solid colour and just the dorsal stripe. They were hiding under a couple pieces of 'OSB' Orientated strand board that was laying between two of the sand hills.

[HazAnga]

This is the 5th one we saw it was hiding under a slab of asphalt. It looks like the tail was pinched short some time ago.

It looks like it was going into blue phase

set it free on the piece of asphalt.

This is the 7th one we saw (yes i know i skipped one but i missed getting a picture of it while we were out)
This one we saw was hiding in a small shelf/hole in the sand pile



We had seen another one before that one but it bolted right off into it's den, which was sorta covered by an old tree base that had been dug up at some point.

[HazAnga]

I decided to keep 2 of the ones i caught, for a little while at least.
This one is the one that i missed getting a picture of, it has some different patterning.


The head was different too, I think it's cool

It's got a nice white belly that sorta goes up the sides a little further then average.

This is a closeup of the back

[guidofatherof5]

Looks like it was a good trip.
Great looking wild scrubs. Looks like they're eating well.

[HazAnga]

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?

[HazAnga]

Looks like it was a good trip.
Great looking wild scrubs. Looks like they're eating well.

Yeah Steve there a small creak not far from them and then a very small stream with a whole lot of tadpoles in it lol.

[kibakiba]

That black and white one looks like my little Silver (I really need to get a better name for him )

Silver's belly is a white speckled light gray, though. He's so tiny that it looks just gray,but if you look hard you can see the speckles. Very awesome trip, though. More snakes than I'd find around here with the pond gone.

[Philminator]

I live a few hours away from London in Ottawa and I have been to Gatineau Park and a bunch of places, lifting every rock , branch , leaf you can think of and I've spent about 100+ hours only to find a juvenille eastern garter I wish I could find them left , right and center. Any tips? special times of the day? my ex gf messaged me saying she went for a walk same path as me at 7 pm and she found over a dozen garters all together I usually go between 10am - 5pm after that im tired lol

[d_virginiana]

Thanks for sharing those pics. That little gray one you kept is especially neat! I hardly ever see wild garters around my house, but I've never seen one anywhere that's quite that color before.

[ConcinusMan]

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.