This day of discovery rolled on. More garters of all sizes, more Ringnecks...how many snakes lived here? I knew garter snakes can reach amazing population densities in the right places.  Just a few years ago I saw forty and more in an open field back home in Illinois, and I remember even better days along creeks near my boyhood home in Missouri.

Casey found another racer about the same size as the first one. Neither snake had attempted to bite, and I was able to examine and photograph them without the typical bloody hand featured in the image. These racers have eight upper labial scales as opposed to seven in our eastern forms, but I couldn't really see much difference in the overall head shape.

We were working along the edge of an old foundation, when I spotted a garter in the grass near my feet. I was able to get my hands on it - here was something different! This was Thamnophis ordinoides, the Northwestern Garter Snake. Like the concinnus we were finding, this snake lacked dorsolateral stripes. The other than the light vertebral stripe, the dorsum was rather plain, and although the snake was opaque we could see a faint, dull pattern of spots running down the body. Casey commented that ordinoides was quite variable in pattern and color, and could be quite beautiful. This species reminded me of our Plains Garters back home - the head was smaller in comparison to sirtalis, and the eyes as well.

A small piece of tin next to a fence turned up another beautiful Ringneck, and lacking any spot in the high grass I took pictures of it on my knapsack. It was certainly easier to photograph the ventrals on these snakes, compared to the two Mud Snakes I had work patiently with a month before.