Ok, did some digging......very hard to find much information on T.s.pallidulus, almost as hard as finding any! (Can't wait 'til I get mine in June!!!!!!) Anyways, from what I could find, the only real descriptions of the subspecies is that it's mid-dorsal stripe is very faint or abscent. Unfortunately, we've all seen Easterns with faint or abscent mid-dorsal stripes. They also say that the spotting on the snake is well defined, which again can go with both subspecies......but I'm thinking from all the pics of T.s.pallidulus that I've seen, their spotting looks different then T.s.sirtalis.....and I'm really thinking that these look a lot like the Maritimes that Ryan at Valley Pets had posted pics of. I also found that T.s.pallidulus does range into NewYork state, and is considered a native species to the state along with the short head garter (T.brachystoma), the eastern ribbon snake (T.sauritus ssp.) and eastern garter. So can they be Maritime garters in New York....YES, are they Maritime garters........well to the best of what I can figure out, I think they are, or may also be a cross of T.s.sirtalis and T.s.pallidulus, since they're just subspecies. How every you look at it, that's one very gorgeous snake and I'm glad to hear that he's still out there in the wild to make more gorgeous snakes someday.
Roy