Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am trying to get a portfolio together about eastern milksnakes. All of you that have found these please give plenty of details about; habitat, time of day, air temp, what found under or by, ect. Please post pics of habitat and specimens. Also what are you favorite strategies?

Thanks,
Mike
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I have: 1.0 veild chameleon, 1.1 corns, 0.1 az king, 1.1 tiger sals, 2.4 fox snakes, 0.1 3-toe box turtle, 0.0.3 gray tree frogs, 1.1 Crotaphytus collaris, 1.1 Crotaphytus binctores

I have'nt found any easterns in years, but in the past I have collected various specimens. All of the milks I have found were in Connecticut. One specimen I collected was a hatchling, found curled up under a rock in a backyard. It was in the month of june, and the temp. was in the mid-70's. It was slightly cloudy, and not too humid.
The habitat of the area was deciduous woodland, along a small river...in the area was a rocky outcropping where many other reptile and amphibians could be found. I also collected a very large adult female specimen in the area. She was going through some brush, adjacent to a large pile of boulders. This area held many rodent species..mostly North american deermice (Peromyscus maniculatus), and short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda). These probably played a large role in the diet of the milk snakes found in the area. Unfortunately, this habitat is gone today. It has been flattened, filled in, and a house has been built in the spot. Apparently, the milksnakes are gone. Hope I have helped.
-Mike

As a young herper in upstate NY, I typically had to search beneath rocks, logs, old tree stumps, etc. to find them during the day. They seem to be relatively secretive during the day and more active at night; it was rare to find one out in the open during the day. One of the few I saw that was actually prowling was doing so in our garage one evening. As for habitats, I recall they usually turned up either in open fields with a lot of bushes, on slopes/hillsides, or near the edge of (but rarely in) wooded areas. Rocky areas seem to be preferred, based on my experience, but like many rodent eaters, they turn up often enough in barns and other outbuildings. In fact, their frequent appearance in livestock barns is probably the source of the ludicrous notion that they milk cows.
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MichaelB

I should in a little while. When I do I'll give you my experiences with easterns (one of my favorite snakes) and include some pics of e. milks I have in my collecton. I'll try to get back here in a couple of hours. Take care, Scott Sullivan.

P.S. I live in Massachusetts so all experience I will share will be from locally caught snakes.
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Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

"In any civilized society, it is every citizen's responsibility to obey just laws.
But at the same time, it is every citizen's responsibility to disobey unjust laws."
—Martin Luther King Jr

take some current pics and two of them are right in the middle of shedding. I'll take some pics once their done shedding. Right now I'm including a pic of my favorite eastern milk (her name is checkers because of her belly pattern), a snake caught on the north shore of Massachusetts in a dry, brushy area. I believe she was under a piece of plywood on the edge of a wooded area. I often find wild field mice under the same boards that the snakes are under so I assume that is their main food source. I'll be adding more pics soon. Hope you like her, Scott.

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Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

"In any civilized society, it is every citizen's responsibility to obey just laws.
But at the same time, it is every citizen's responsibility to disobey unjust laws."
—Martin Luther King Jr