Quote Originally Posted by guidofatherof5 View Post
First is female.
The second appears male to me.
Yeah, me too. Looks like you got yourself a pair of Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis'. Red sided (not to be confused with CA red sided)

Garter snakes display sexual dimorphism. We don't need no stinkin' probes! Just pics. It's easy to miss the inverted hemipene on a male, causing it to probe as female, if you're not far enough over to one side or the other or if the probe is just a little to big in diameter.