A Beautiful Day for Field Herping *pics*

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Well, it was a gorgeous day today. I thought I would try my luck at my favourite, undiscovered herpers paradise and see if I could set any records for early skink sightings (this site is literally crawling with Eumeces fasciatus). No such luck. The earliest I have seen them out is still not for another few weeks.
However, some herps were out and about.....
The seemingly ubiquitous Eastern Redback Salamander (Plethodon cinereus):



And of course, the also somewhat ubiquitous Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis):

Can you see him?





A few habitat/site shots:



Here we are at the highest point at our site. Quite the long fall off that shear-cliff, but I had a pretty good foothold....

Not as great as I had hoped, but pretty good for mid-April when the lakes are still frozen.
And of course, a bad day of herpin' is always better than a good day at work
Cheers,
Ryan

[AgaR]

Nice shots Man!

[Scales Zoo]

Great shots, very nice garter.

Ryan

[Matt_K]

Awesome shots man!! Looks like a nice area you were at.. I plan on going out tomorrow around here since it's supposed to be warmer then today.. I'll be armed with the camera incase i spot anything.

[jparker1167]

nice pics

[Swampwalker]

Nice pictures Ryan. I went out this afternoon and found about a dozen Eastern Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis), and video taped a pair mating. I didn't find any groups breeding, just two seperate pairs. I did quite a bit of flipping but found no salamanders. I also saw several painted turtles basking and a leopard frog crossing te road.

[snakehunter]

I caught two LARGE female five lines yesterday

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Originally posted by snakehunter
I caught two LARGE female five lines yesterday

Awesome! There's a tiny lattitudinal difference between our respective towns though
R

[Ontario_herper]

Great sally shots!

[MouseKilla]

Great shots of that garter, I can see that you really appreciate just how cool they are. Like nearly every other Canadian that's ever been sucked into the snake world, it all started with catching these guys as a kid.

I really should grab the camera and the kid and see if we can find some ourselves. It's cool to have a captive collection of all sorts of snakes from all over the world but there's nothing quite like flipping a rock and finding one in it's natural setting.

Again, great shots, I wish I knew what you did to convince that snake to pose for you like that. Usually they don't like to hang around for very long.

[Matt]

the redback's beautiful, nice find!