Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We had some heavy rains last night and I was able to get away for a few hours this morning. I figured I'd take my daughter to try to find a green snake, and maybe a couple of redbellys, along with a bunch of garters. Much to our surprise our first railroad tie flipped this L.t.t.

I wish I had Nate's patience and skills for field photo posts, but we were just to excited with this find. Thanks for looking.
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Joe

Is that from the same general locality as you amel? That would be sweet...

-Cole

I'm guessing not a gene carrier as it was a few miles away from the amel, but not too far.

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Joe

Very impressive eastern milk Joe! Really amazingly beautiful find! Here's hoping you do manage to set of a locale grouping to go with your male... this is by far a great start. Hopefully it's a female -- lol.

Chris

Joe, if you quit when you were ahead you could go down in history as the only milksnake guy that finds ONLY ALBINOS! I hope its a female and more importantly I hope you havent lost that touch when it comes to FEEDING. My email is down, but go ahead and call me.

Now THAT is a classic eastern milk! They are becoming increasingly hard to find even where once common. I've often wondered why easterns seem to become extirpated so easily while other species seem to survive or even thrive.

Thanks Tony, but you mean to tell me the little red and white ones with a solid white belly are not classic? Just kidding of course.
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Joe

No they are not but I like them all!

Great find, Joe! That's a beauty. I spent all morning yesterday in Western NY flipping rocks and found probably 60 snakes between me and the guy I was with. Countless garters, ringnecks and redbellies but NO eastern milks! Great find man.

Dave
DNS Reptiles

Thanks Dave. You can actually take a little credit for this find, lol.
True story, I read your post (about the garters, redbellies, and ring necks) last night and then asked my kids if they wanted to go look for snakes in the morning. My daughter obliged and I brought her to a spot I had always found garters, redbellies, greens and browns years ago (never found a milk there) just to find "snakes" and this is the first one we found! We went on to find a bunch of garters and then packed up before thunderstorms rolled in. Definitely a great hour or so hike with her!
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Joe

Glad I could be a motivator, Joe! Great find. You did much better than I did flipping rocks!

Dave

Real nice looking milk Joe.Lets hope its a girl.

L8r Shannon

Thanks everyone. Shannon, Chris, and Jeff I plan to let it settle in a bit, feed, and then probe. Female - stays for a while, male - gets to go back to the tracks!
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Joe

Great looking snake my friend. Getting good pics in the field does take patience. But when your patience runs thin, try slapping them around a bit and stepping on them a whole bunch of times. This slows them down a little.....LOL. I'm only kidding..
Nathan