2011 Herping Pics

[PINJOHN]

you also mentioned diving after the snakes, a little less of that please young lady, in your condition you will worry us to death,

[RdubSnider]

Awesome pictures. You don't see big girls like that very often.

[charles parenteau]

Very nice Shannon !!Those garter snake are very big indeed....By the way I never see ringneck basking very good find!!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

Very nice Shannon !!Those garter snake are very big indeed....By the way I never see ringneck basking very good find!!

haha I wish they were basking but they were all found under rocks hiding. I found those three under rocks that were right next to each other and I set them all on the ground like that to release them... but they held still so I snapped a photo

[RedSidedSPR]

NICE!! The water snake is awesome. BIG garter snakes! Wow. How long did you spend out there??

I found a brown water snake, bunch of river cooters yesterday but that's it. I've never been that lucky!!

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

great stuff Shannon, i can not thank you and the other members enough; who go through the trouble of sharing your adventures with us.
when logging on if i see a thread with a mention of herping in the title the all the other threads have to wait , besides the great photos i really enjoyed the info about the toads, do all garters have a tolerance of toad venom? the reason i ask is because the grassnake in Britain and [ perhaps in mainland Europe] seems to be split into those that will eat toads and those that wont; from what i have read the toad eaters dont just tolerate toads but specialize in them, the others i assume not finding the toad toxins to their liking.

I would have to assume that these snakes tolerate it without an issue.... because I know that's what they are eating. There are toads EVERYWHERE! Hopping in the grass, under the rocks, in the lake... and then soon, all of those tadpoles! There must be a billion of them in total. Strange that I saw no snakes taking advantage of that easy meal! The next time I go back, there will be baby toads... so thick that stepping on them will be unavoidable (I always feel bad about that) I don't see any other types of garter prey readily available there... hardly any earthworms at all, rarely a frog, and the garters frequent the other side of the damn which is lined with rocks, no fish. It's perfect mice habitat and I am sure mice live there, but I haven't seen any. I can tell you one thing, the garters around my house are eating mostly earthworms... there aren't many toads or other things but there are TONS of worms. None of the garters around here are nearly as large.

[RedSidedSPR]

perfect garter habitat (except for the lack of fish) I wish I had a place like that.

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

you also mentioned diving after the snakes, a little less of that please young lady, in your condition you will worry us to death,

hahaha you sound like my mom and Eddie's mom! I am only like, 2 months pregnant... I'll be fine! I am not going to be one of those women who are afraid to do anything because of pregnancy. I have a friend who is pregnant also, apparently she's not even feeding her leopard geckos anymore, she's making him do it because she's afraid!

I'll stick to the basics though...avoiding alcohol, advil, the litter box and bird droppings, caffeine, so on and so forth!

[Stefan-A]

The massive garter, it's too bad these pics don't do her size any justice!

The massive garter is damn beautiful.

[drache]

beautiful animals
great photos
thanks Shannon