First snakes of the Year!!

[Ryan]

It was absolutely beautiful outside today and since we hadn't had any luck finding snakes out yet we figured it the perfect time to go to the dens. Seeing how great minds think alike we ran into Ryan Wunsch at the dens when we pulled up where he had just made the first sighting of the year in a bullsnake.

Pretty good day for the first sightings of the year, we found 6 Bullsnakes at two den sites.....unfortunately no rattlesnakes or garters yet though.

Here are the days finds.......







This one was less than pleased with us as you can tell.



Almost tripped over this one.



Good day overall, hopefully the rattlers are out soon now. Enjoy the pics.

[Shawn(snakebite)]

Awesome piks Ryan.Wow , sounds like a wicked great day you had, makes me want to get a plan going to come up there soon and join ya!!I've spotted Garters out down here , so they are out and about.Sweet piks bro ...good job!!!

[Ryan]

Well hurry up Shawn!! Once all the snakes are out there is only a few weeks before they all start to leave the dens and are more difficult to find.

[Shawn(snakebite)]

Huh... true , yeah I'll have to start thinkin of it seriously , would be a great time, and I almost got everything bred so I'll have a little window of opportunity there for a bit.Very tempting!!

[Ryan Wunsch]

Nice pictures Ryan. I see there are more nice days in the forecast, we'll have to go looking some more and find the first rattler of the year together. 3 more days of this weather and I bet they'll start coming out.

I can show you around the countryside, and tell you serial killer stories when we are out in the middle of nowhere. I'll show you where the middle of nowhere is too, it's right near here.

Is this the one that I saw?


If not, it looks similar. If so, your pictures show it off better than mine do.

It seems in the spring, that the garters come out just a bit before the bulls.

When the bulls come out, I think that most that I see are males. I'm guessing that the males stay by the dens for a while, and wait for the females to emerge, so they can breed them before the females go foraging and lay their eggs. I have found bullsnakes quite a ways from the dens early in the year, and many times they look to be females.

The rattlesnakes on the other hand stick near the dens longer I find. Since they are live bearers, they don't need to go find a suitable place to lay eggs. The birthing rookeries aren't that far from the winter dens, in some cases they are quite close. I think maybe the females that become gravid (I've read they become gravid 1 out of every 2 or 3 years as a rule) stick as near to the dens and rookeries as possible, if there is sufficient food near there to support their numbers.

I can usually find a rattlesnake near the densites every time of year. I'm not sure if any studies have been done to see how far bullsnakes can travel, but rattlers have been found to travel up to 20 miles away from the dens each year, to return later in the year to the exact same densite many times.

The fall provides a larger window to find a lot more snakes (baby rattlers included). I'd guess they head back early to make sure they dont' get caught out in an early winter, and stick near the dens using the sun to bask as long as they can before finally calling it quits and heading deep down the dens.

I've never seen many baby bullsnakes at the densites, and I have read that they spend their first year away from the dens. Actually, I've never found many baby bullsnakes at all (as compared to rattlesnakes)

Ryan

[Ryan]

Although I don't get out to the densites nearly as much as you I have never seen a baby Bull either, seen lot's of baby rattlers and you're right they do seem to stay much closer to the densites year round. You're probably right about the baby bulls spending their first winter somewhere else cause I don't even think I've seen any under 2ft at any of the densites I've been to.

If this weather is going to keep up for a few more days then definately run by and pick me up, I only know the 2-3 densites so I'm sure you have a few more spots I haven't been yet.

[Ryan]

OH and I don't think that bull is the same one you saw Ryan, I found that one way out in open ground nowhere near a hole. We actually looked right where you said the other one was but didn't see anything in that area.

[samsteele]

What is the range of the Bull Snake in Sask? I'm in Moose Jaw (and fairly new to the province), what snakes can I find in this area?

Carl

[Ryan Wunsch]

I don't know much about finding snakes out that way unfortunately. Near the U.S border, South of Moose Jaw, i have heard has a few really good herping spots.

This is carcnets range map for Bulls in Canada.
www.carcnet.ca/english/reptiles/tour/glossary/gopsnk/gopsnk.htm

It doesn't mean you can find them all over the red area shown (which looks like it comes very close to moose jaw.

Im guessing that because there are burrowing owls near moose jaw, that you might find hognose snakes and bullsnakes not too far from known burrowing owl sites (thatcher drive and the exhibition grounds would not be the first place I looked for snakes though - but I have seen burrowing owls there). The range map for burrowing owls is sadly shrinking each year due to many reasons, but if you ask the right people who know about burrrowing owls out that way, they might have some stories about snakes (feel free to share them if they do)

Here are the rangemaps for all over Saskatchewan.

www.carcnet.ca/english/reptiles/tour/province/rsask.htm

I will ask if we can add this as a resource to the HISS page, and add it if we can (we had permission in the past, but I will double check to be polite)

I have college buddy's near Weyburn who see snapping turtles commonly while fishing. They insist they have seen bullsnakes also. I plan to go fishing with them some time, and check out that area of the province.

I'm not sure how much recent work has been put into more specific range maps of any reptiles in Saskatchewan. A few years ago Byron had plans to do a range study on bullsnakes.

I'd be interested in trying to gather some information about where people have found various reptiles in Saskatchewan - maybe this is something else that HISS and it's members would like to do.

Ryan

[Ryan]

I'll be doing a little private research this year as I have at least a couple camping trips planned in what should be some good snake areas like down in grasslands.

When I was living in Regina the most I ever found were the odd garter or two but local farmers were always telling me they had seen by their description some Bulls, I was always very skeptical of this but who knows. Again, I never saw them but apparently both Painted turtles and Snappers were fairly common in and around Regina as well as my uncle had told me numerous times that he had stopped to move both kinds off of roads as he was driving.

[joeysgreen]

Geez you guys, I"ve been look'n and can't find nothing! Not even a frog's trill! And I didn't know snappers were in Sask... I gotta get up on these things

Ian