Nocturnal activity in Wandering Garters

Dedicated exclusively to field herping.

Moderator: Scott Waters

Post Reply
User avatar
jdustin
Posts: 454
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:59 am
Location: UTAH
Contact:

Nocturnal activity in Wandering Garters

Post by jdustin »

Previously I've only seen T. e. vagrans only during the day and I thought they were pretty much completely diurnal, but last night I was surprised to see two out well after dark while road cruising. Do others see these guys at night too?

This one was out and about at 9:47pm
Image
Image
Then this little guy was on the road at 10:25pm
Image

A few of the area usuals were out as well.
Image
Image
Image
Image

Looks like that one had a parasite
Image
Brian Eagar
Posts: 430
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 12:59 pm

Re: Nocturnal activity in Wandering Garters

Post by Brian Eagar »

Hey Josh,
I often find wandering garters at night in the summer. In some desert locations I've only ever seen them at night despite searching for them during the day.
It makes sense that if you are in the desert and primarily feed on toads that you would wait to hunt them at night.
Similarly if your a suburban animal who primarily feeds on worms. your best bet is probably at night when sprinklers are on.
I think in non-desert areas they just like the cooler temps at night. I've found them well after midnight and often on new-mooon nights so they obviously have no problem seeing in the dark. I've found racers and coachwhips at night this time of year also.

Brian
User avatar
jdustin
Posts: 454
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:59 am
Location: UTAH
Contact:

Re: Nocturnal activity in Wandering Garters

Post by jdustin »

Cool, thanks Brian. I guess I just haven't done enough road driving, I had no idea. I did find a mormon racer at night last year. I thought that was weird at the time too.
Thanks for the response.
User avatar
herpseeker1978
Posts: 1139
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:05 am
Location: Albuquerque

Re: Nocturnal activity in Wandering Garters

Post by herpseeker1978 »

I've found them at night as well, much more during the day, but I have found elegans, marcianus and radix at night.

Josh
Brian Eagar
Posts: 430
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 12:59 pm

Re: Nocturnal activity in Wandering Garters

Post by Brian Eagar »

Racers are definately more rare at night than garters.

Here are the diurnal snakes I haven't seen at night:
whipsnakes
smooth greens (though I know of them being found after dark)
ringnecks (though I know of them being found after dark)
valley garters (heard of them found at night in CA).

I have a far bigger list of what I haven't seen durring the day. Both of which are interesting topics.
I thought the first garter I saw at night was very weird too but now that I've spent way too many hours on the road
it isn't so novel . Especially in some locations.
Jimi
Posts: 1955
Joined: December 3rd, 2010, 12:06 pm

Re: Nocturnal activity in Wandering Garters

Post by Jimi »

I also have found many vagrans AOR at night, particularly in dry parts of eastern Utah.

Like several posters already, I've also more-or-less regularly seen several congeners AOR at night - plains, checkered, cyrtopsis, eastern & western ribbons, nominate sirtalis spring to mind. And doing nocturnal work on & around streams in various regions in hot interior NorCal I'd see elegans, sirtalis, ordinoides, and couchii in stream channels (foraging on cobbles and in the shallows) at night in summer. Plenty of food out then, and not insanely hot...

Cheers,
Jimi
User avatar
frodaman
Posts: 303
Joined: August 29th, 2011, 10:54 pm
Location: Arizona

Re: Nocturnal activity in Wandering Garters

Post by frodaman »

I herp mostly in Sanpete County, and over there I find garters ALL OVER the place near small creeks. When it comes to cruising, I tend to find them on dirt roads that are less traveled, right before rainfall.
TimCO
Posts: 891
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 11:27 am
Location: Colorado

Re: Nocturnal activity in Wandering Garters

Post by TimCO »

I have also found quite a few at night in western Colorado.
User avatar
Bob
Posts: 127
Joined: November 1st, 2011, 1:35 pm
Location: livingston MT

Re: Nocturnal activity in Wandering Garters

Post by Bob »

I'm always amazed at at how well they catch fish, especially trout. Sculpins I can understand as all the snake needs to is poke around under rocks close to the shoreline, but this year we came across three either swallowing or mouthing cutthroat (5-6 inchers) trout in YNP.
User avatar
Bryan Hamilton
Posts: 1234
Joined: June 10th, 2010, 9:49 pm

Re: Nocturnal activity in Wandering Garters

Post by Bryan Hamilton »

Bob wrote: I'm always amazed at at how well they catch fish, especially trout. Sculpins I can understand as all the snake needs to is poke around under rocks close to the shoreline, but this year we came across three either swallowing or mouthing cutthroat (5-6 inchers) trout in YNP.
Yeah I've seen elegans snatch trout from streams while doing electrofishing surveys. Extremely quick and accurate strikers. They can swallow some amazingly large fish too.
Post Reply