Quote Originally Posted by Stefan-A View Post
I agree, but that doesn't mean that they don't apply.
I also meant to imply that they don't apply to all species of garter snakes.

Northwesterns are sometimes seen on the surface close to the den entrances on warm winter days/cold spring days and they seem to function at relatively low temperatures and can even survive brief freezing. Concinnus' staying in the same dens don't come out at all in winter and it takes 4-7 days of warm weather to bring them out in the spring.

All this has got me to thinking and so I found some active USGS ground temperature monitoring stations in my area which monitor varying depths. It will be interesting to see how the data coincides with the snakes' emergence next spring. In the mean time, I have requested by email, data from last winter/spring.