{"id":14169,"date":"2014-04-04T12:35:42","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T17:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=14169"},"modified":"2014-04-04T12:35:42","modified_gmt":"2014-04-04T17:35:42","slug":"garter-snake-active-in-southcoast-wetlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=14169","title":{"rendered":"Garter Snake Active in SouthCoast Wetlands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-snake-999-840.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14177\" title=\"Sierra Exif JPEG\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-snake-999-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-snake-999-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-snake-999-480-300x249.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Large Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) in SouthCoast Bog<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Turtle Journal explored the SouthCoast wetlands surrounding the abandoned Goldwitz cranberry bog in Marion on Thursday afternoon.\u00c2\u00a0 As we crossed a hard-packed, dirt road, we startled a large garter snake (<em>Thamnophis sirtalis<\/em>) &#8212; the Massachusetts\u00c2\u00a0state reptile &#8211;\u00c2\u00a0basking\u00c2\u00a0atop the warm roadway.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-snake-900-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14173\" title=\"Sierra Exif JPEG\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-snake-900-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"308\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-snake-900-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-snake-900-480-300x192.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Large Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis)<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">And, yes; the snake startled us, too.\u00c2\u00a0 Its color scheme blended perfectly with the compact sand, and as it lay motionless, the snake was nearly impossible to detect &#8230; until it began to slither toward the swamp.\u00c2\u00a0 We\u00c2\u00a0compared its\u00c2\u00a0length to\u00c2\u00a0our boot size\u00c2\u00a0to\u00c2\u00a0obtain an eyeball approximation of 2.5 feet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-Rufus-and-Snake-001-960.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-14171\" title=\"xpost Rufus and Snake 001 480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-Rufus-and-Snake-001-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-Rufus-and-Snake-001-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-Rufus-and-Snake-001-480-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-Rufus-and-Snake-001-480-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Rufus the Turtle Dog Tracks Garter Snake<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Rufus proved particularly amused by the snake.\u00c2\u00a0 Reading her mind, I saw a cartoon bubble exclaiming, &#8220;Wow!\u00c2\u00a0 A stick that actually throws itself.&#8221;\u00c2\u00a0 She thought she had found the perfect doggie toy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-snake-952-480.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14175\" title=\"Sierra Exif JPEG\" src=\"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-snake-952-480.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"724\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-snake-952-480.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/xpost-snake-952-480-198x300.jpg 198w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Garter Snake Slithers into Abandoned Cranberry Bog<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Sliding down the bank, the garter snake slipped into the flooded wetlands.\u00c2\u00a0 It swam into the middle of the swamp and found a tangle of\u00c2\u00a0reeds and grass stocks on which\u00c2\u00a0it could\u00c2\u00a0continue basking in the 55 degree sunshine.\u00c2\u00a0 With sighting of the garter snake, Turtle Journal has observed most of our Spring signature species and we feel comfortable proclaiming that the Spring season is in full swing &#8230; at least until the next nasty snow storm strikes the Great White North.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Large Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) in SouthCoast Bog Turtle Journal explored the SouthCoast wetlands surrounding the abandoned Goldwitz cranberry bog in Marion on Thursday afternoon.\u00c2\u00a0 As we crossed a hard-packed, dirt road, we startled a large garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) &#8212; the Massachusetts\u00c2\u00a0state reptile &#8211;\u00c2\u00a0basking\u00c2\u00a0atop the warm roadway. Large Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) And, yes; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[402,826],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14169"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14169"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14197,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14169\/revisions\/14197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}