Stillwater Oklahoma; with ID question

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joeysgreen
Posts: 523
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 9:09 pm
Location: Edmonton, Alberta

Stillwater Oklahoma; with ID question

Post by joeysgreen »

This weekend the snakes finally have arrived for me. On Saturday a quick walk to the post office turned into a train track foray and I found an earth snake, brown snake and a feisty gartersnake. I am having difficulty defining what species of earth snake I have found. It has 5 labials which says rough earth, but the dorsal scales are what I would call "weakly keeled" which can fit with the smooth earth snake. I have never found a rough earth snake so don't have a true comparison. The same pictures show up on google regardless of species searched.

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Here's the Brown snake. They sure aren't happy to sit for a photograph.
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And this gartersnake was totally mislabelled as a Thamnophis radix... it sure looks stout and plains garter to me; much unlike the T. proximus I've found in Illinios. But low and behold, the lateral line is on scale rows 3 and 4 and there is no black bars on the labials. T. radix is also about a hundred miles out of range according to Peterson's field guide.

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Today the turtles also came out of hiding. I've seen red eared sliders since day one of moving to Oklahoma, but now the Eastern Cooters and Spiny Softshells were out basking too. I can see them great in my binoculars, but my camera just doesn't capture them at distance so no pictures. I did get to pull out a common snapping turtle however. They like to hide and bask in the shallows under cover.
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Also to be found was a life three toed box turtle. The photo isn't great because after 20 minutes this was as much as he'd open his shell for a picture.

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I also saw some unidentified nerodia and skinks that slipped away before I could catch any features.

Thanks for any help on the ID's and I hope you enjoyed some of the pictures.

Ian
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Stohlgren
Posts: 603
Joined: November 6th, 2010, 10:59 am
Location: Athens, GA (Columbia, MO)

Re: Stillwater Oklahoma; with ID question

Post by Stohlgren »

Those are V. striatula and T. proximus.
joeysgreen
Posts: 523
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 9:09 pm
Location: Edmonton, Alberta

Re: Stillwater Oklahoma; with ID question

Post by joeysgreen »

Thanks very much. I was confident on the proximus ID but hesitant on the striatula.

Ian
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