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Another Lifer! Florida Blue Garter Snake

Nanci

Nanci

Alien Lover
I don't know what the current thinking is on this species- is it just an Eastern locality, or a subspecies? In any case, I have found a lifetime's worth of garters, but never a Florida Blue garter!

Alachua County Florida, Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, on a wooden slatted planting bench overgrown with weeds in dappled sunlight, near 12:00 PM, in close proximity to artificial ponds with minnows and frogs.
 

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This snake just let me pick him up, like I was picking up one of my snakes off a table. Then the musking, striking and triangle-heading began. He never bit me, though, and he had quite a bit of slack from the beginning.
 

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After a few minutes of picture taking, I stopped treating him as though he was going to bite, and ran him through my hands like a pet snake, and he was quite tame and settled down. After the pics, I released him where I'd picked him up from. Thanks for looking!

(Other herps found included brown and green anoles, large and small skinks, two soft-shelled turtles, an unidentified juvenile slider-typed turtle, bullfrogs, two other unidentified frogs and a gorgeous black racer).
 

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Wonderful find! I believe the Florida blues are just a subspecies of the Eastern garter. There is a blue stripe garter but I forget where they are found. If you post your wonderful photos over at thamnophis.com they'll tell you the correct info.

I actually think that you were holding a gravid female looking at the size of the snake. I would have had trouble letting that one go!
 
Beautious Nanci, nice one.
It's an Eastern. I've been finding quite a difference in them lately from other people's encounters.
Most of ours are like that one, same colors exactly with a little less obvious checkering on the black stripes, almost not showing, like a solid black stripe.
Snakemaster24 has one, I think W/C from around here, that has really strong checkering. Same colors.
I have a park ranger friend who has one that is more tan than green, also from around here.
 
jodu said:
I actually think that you were holding a gravid female looking at the size of the snake. I would have had trouble letting that one go!
Click to expand...

You think? Well, I have had my fill of WC snakes for a while. But maybe a fish-eater would be interesting! But no. Maybe after the nightmare of the Eastern hoggy wears off in 10 years or so...
 
Nanci said:
Alachua County Florida, Kanapaha Botanical Gardens, on a wooden slatted planting bench overgrown with weeds in dappled sunlight, near 12:00 PM, in close proximity to artificial ponds with minnows and frogs.
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. . . wearing mirrored sunglasses while administering sunscreen. He was just about read to take a shot of tequila as he was folding up a newspaper, the comic section mind you, and donning his sunhat. His unfinished meal on the plate beside him consisted of 2 minnows a medium sized earthworm and a stick. ;) (sorry, I couldn't resist!)

Congrats Nanci! I hoping I get a rattlesnake, bullsnake, and hognose come mid-June when we take our field bio class out west. I was 0 for 0 last summer.

D80
 
Nice find, I love finding blues. The best looking one I found was in Glades County in '05, he was dark black and almost neon blue.
 
jen murphy said:
Hahah what a flattened triangle head he's got there! Very pretty, I've never seen a blue one before.
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Hopefully my friend got better pics of him! You should have seen him, first, he just lets me pick him up, then he got very defensive! He _really_ flattened his head, and kept striking and striking with a wide open mouth, and he had about 6-8 inches of slack, but he never seemed to make the connection between my hands holding him and what he should be biting. After he slowed down a little, I just started running him through my hands and he pretty much quit striking, and almost stopped triangling, but every once in a while he'd do it again. He was so beautiful.
 
She definitely is a beautiful snake..I also would have trouble letting her go...lol...When I saw the garter snake at my job I wanted to just snatch it up and take it home...lol..but I guess it's good we herp lovers don't always jump on our impulses..if we did...the wild snake population would be in trouble..lol...just think..by letting that gravid girl go, you helped the ecosystem :0)
 
By the time I got home last night I was so tired I took a nap and didn't upload my photos until really late. I will have to work on them today. Although, it looks like we actually got better photos on Nanci's camera - she was just moving too much for me to really focus in on him.
I kept trying to draw her attention towards me so she wouldn't turn around and bite Nanci. It was an amazing find and Nanci as usual rocked with the quick capture and handling!
 
I haven't seen....

a garter that large (or any size really) in the wild in along time. Nice find again Nanci.
 
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