I believe it snows around your place, every once in a while. Next time it snows you will notice in the mourning snow will cover the whole place, then in a short time, there will be areas with no snow. There are places the snow melts much much faster then in other areas. If you look, you will notice a pattern as to what melts the fastest. Consider, the air temps are about the same, so why do some areas melt faster then others. And why do some areas never hold snow?

You may have missed my conversation with ratsnakehaven, in one of the posts I mentioned a cave close to where he stays in Az. This cave is about the same elevation as you, 4800ft. In the cave, the air temperature is 80F year around. With that in mind, snakes do not have to go to deep before it gets to warm to conserve energy. Also, it means they can find a wide range of temps all without coming to the surface. In arizona, in all but the higher elevations, many areas are far to warm for eggs. So they do not have to place them in the warmest areas.

Also nature does not do the one temp thing, they place their eggs close enough to the surface that there is some fluction. Also, the eggs are never in moist areas, they are in dry and humid areas. Dry and humid is a very hard concept to understand. You may already understand it.

So eggs in nature are hotter in the afternoon, evening and at early night and cooler in the latenight, mourning up to a little after mid-day. Remember, mass lags behind the heat source.

To be trueful, I do not make a habit of digging up snake eggs, I have found many clutches of various species, but no longer purposely dig them up. So thankfully my numbers are not that high, but so far, they all had a common thread, dry and humid. With temps from low seventies to low ninties.

And yes, there are snake eggs that overwinter. Another long story, hahahahahahahaha.

I like your subject, and I would like to reinforce your thoughts, of the millions and millions of kingsnake clutches that are deposited each and every year, why are so few ever seen by herpers? The answer is easy, we are looking in the wrong places. And I am glad of that. FR

[ Hide Replies ]

• Frank, some incubation questions for wild snakes........... - Kerby..., Mon Oct 24 21:52:52 2005
• RE: Lets play a game. sorta - FR, Mon Oct 24 22:42:59 2005
• RE: Pardon the interruption, - BobBull, Tue Oct 25 07:57:43 2005
• RE: No sir - FR, Tue Oct 25 09:38:36 2005