Yesterday I went back to work in Presque Isle Co, MI, right on Lake Huron. Since our school is having contract probs, we decided to all leave school during the lunch period. I went down to the park to eat my lunch and stared at this all the while...
Just wanted to put us in the right flavor, since I'd be herping near here later.
It was a pretty nice day yesterday, a rarity this summer in n. MI. So, I decided to check some of my herping spots after school. Next is a pic of my Butler's garter spot, but it's been unproductive for the last two years. I think it's starting to get overgrown...
I didn't see any snakes at all at this spot. Maybe it was too cold near the lake. But, in general, the Eastern garters are out-competing the Butler's here.
Finally, I stopped at my favorite small stream on the way home to see if any Eastern massasaugas were out. The temperatures are usually lots better further inland and yesterday it was around 66*F, pretty good if you're looking under cover.
In an old field I've been going to for over twenty years, I found some old cover that has lasted for yrs. The massasaugas were not out, however, so no babies, and I wasn't able to tell if they'd dropped any babies, yet. But I did see quite a few E. garters with lots of babies, a few red-belly snakes, one green snake, and under an old truck tire, a couple of E. milksnkakes. One milk was very blue, but the other was suitable for pics, so I tried to get one I could show. Unfortunately, it the sun was pretty low by the time I took this one. Notice the aberrant pattern...
The pattern is broken up into spots and lines in places, and also the blotches tend to go all the way onto the belly in places, unusual for milks in MI. I like this site because it has produced some milks that look a little like snakes from much further west. I brought this snake home in hopes of getting some better pics and studying the pattern some more, so I may post more on this later. Have a good day all...
TC
