That pic of that blue maritime/eastern looks a lot like a garter that I had for years. Her name was shoobie. When I look back at her now, I know that she was not a normal colored sirtalis at all, she was light and bluish, with orange on her sides a lot like that one. I caught her as a baby when I was still a child and I had her for years. She passed away at about 8 years old. She may have lived longer had I known what i was doing when I was 9... I now realize that she would have been of enormous breeding potential much like this "hypo" that I now have. Too bad I was too young to realize it.
My grandparents farm is loaded with sirtalis. loaded to the point of I can walk over to the side of their house EVERY hour, and lift up this one board and there will be about 5 or 6 sirtalis under there. And when i am there visitng, these garters get so used to me doing this that they don't even leave when i put the board back down!
They live in NW PA and from what I understand maritimes do not come from that area. What I was getting at is that up there, only about 1/4 of the population of sirtalis have a dorsal stripe of any kind. Many of them also have bright orange cheeks. This summer when I go I will take photos while herping to show you guys what I mean
