More Eastern Milks from NYC

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shredsteban
Posts: 199
Joined: April 7th, 2012, 8:53 pm
Location: Riverside, Ca

More Eastern Milks from NYC

Post by shredsteban »

I decided to go to a spot a friend gave me within NYC this morning with my wife and kids. We spent almost 2 hours flipping AC of all sorts. We flipped 3 yearling Eastern Milksnakes, had a visual encounter with 1 adult Eastern Milksnake and flipped 1 Dekay's brown snake that I didn't photograph. We had to cut the day short due to my toddlers getting tired since it was almost nap time. Anyways, here are some photos of NYC Eastern Milksnakes from this morning. I leave for the west coast in 2 weeks and have no intentions of ever returning to NYC ever again. Great way to end our short time living here.


I spotted this first adult Milksnake was spotted next to a big piece of plywood. It was the same snake my friend flipped a few days ago. Old, in shed and doesn't seem long for this world. I let her be and didn't want to add unneeded stress to the snake. In situ.
ImageEastern Milkshake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum) by Nick Barrientos, on Flickr

This was the second snake I flipped. It was under a piece of asphalt with dried grass, trash and concrete underneath. It was darting down a hole so no "as flipped" photo for this one.
ImageEastern Milkshake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum) by Nick Barrientos, on Flickr

I flipped this next milksnake underneath an old brick. Not much microhabitat underneath. Shot is in situ/as flipped.
ImageEastern Milkshake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum) by Nick Barrientos, on Flickr

This next snake was flipped underneath another piece of concrete/brick 6ft away from the last snake.
ImageEastern Milkshake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum) by Nick Barrientos, on Flickr

Same snake in my hand
ImageEastern Milkshake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum) by Nick Barrientos, on Flickr


All three snakes in my hand. Each snake was placed back under the AC it was found. It's illegal to collect any snakes within NYC.
ImageEastern Milkshake (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum) by Nick Barrientos, on Flickr
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pete
Posts: 745
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:11 pm
Location: cape cod ma.

Re: More Eastern Milks from NYC

Post by pete »

That's very cool! Snakes in the urban wasteland. Have you seen any wall lizards during your stay? One day I'm going to bite the bullet and explore the city instead of just driving through.
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shredsteban
Posts: 199
Joined: April 7th, 2012, 8:53 pm
Location: Riverside, Ca

Re: More Eastern Milks from NYC

Post by shredsteban »

pete wrote:That's very cool! Snakes in the urban wasteland. Have you seen any wall lizards during your stay? One day I'm going to bite the bullet and explore the city instead of just driving through.
Thanks! It has been really cool being able to do some herping this spring. I thought I was going to miss out on hitting the field this spring because of living in the city. I'm in the Bronx and it's pretty well known that Italian Wall Lizards are here. I went out a couple days ago and flipped a total of 20 snakes, all Dekay's and Eastern Garters. It was the most snakes I've flipped in a single day. I'm from California and we have a ton of diversity there. But we've been in a terrible drought for some time now and it's taking it's toll on both the flipping and cruising season. Anyways, quite a bit of the Dekay's and Eastern Garters got away from me since it was a lot of rock on rock habitat with lots of holes and crevices underneath. I did manage to spot an Italian Wall Lizard. Snuck up with my 100mm and tried chasing it down to get a hold of it. Needless to say, I did not catch that thing. But here's my voucher photo.

ImageItalian Wall Lizard (Podarcis sicula) by Nick Barrientos, on Flickr
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