Interesting thread that I thought that I would comment on since I live in York County, PA. I have caught and raised many Eastern Milks from York County over my forty plus years in the hobby. One thing that I've found to be very interesting about this locality is the comment that Phil referred to regarding the neck pattern. There is a particular locality that I have hunted since I was a kid that produces, what appears to be intergrade Easterns with the neck band that resembles syspila. Chris Jones has some good photos of York County stock on his web site for King of Kings Reptiles.

Also of interest regarding this population is the color. The colors on SOME of the York County triangulum range from blood red to light orange. There are others that I've found that exhibit your typical light brown coloration. In fact, there are two spots that I've seen triangulum at that produce totally different appearing snakes. These spots are about a ten minute drive away from each other.

The population that I refer to that produces the nicely colored triangulum also tend to start on rodents without a problem, particularly the hatchlings. I've heard that other locales of Eastern Milks can be very difficult to get to feed on rodents.

One year back in the late 80's, I hatched out a clutch of Eastern Milks from a wild caught female and took the babies out to release them. I also had a litter of newborn Eastern Garters and had them in the same container. By the time that I arrived at the spot to release the snakes, several of the Eastern Milks had eaten the baby garters. Just an observation of interest. Seems that nature provides baby garters in abundance at the time when the Eastern Milks have hatched out and are ready to feed.

When I was a kid I would catch Eastern Milks every year. They were never really abundant so they were pretty much the "catch of the summer". I didn't appreciate them then like I do now. And I also don't see them as often as I used to either.

Another spot that I saw Easterns was in a wall bordering a road right in front of the house I lived at until my mid 20's. I used to find sheds in the wall in the spring and never really realized what they were until I was older. Then I searched the wall in the spring and was finding them in my back yard. That wall is long gone as the new owners tore down the wall. A shame, as that population produced some really oustanding Easterns.

So, the old adage pretty well applies to the snakes you see around your area. You never really know what you have till it's gone. It seems that that scenario plays itself over and over with the continued encroachment of people into the country.

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