It's Sssspring

Santa Cruz gartersnake cruising over yellow starthistle seedling.
This subspecies has a whitish to lemon-yellow throat.

While surveying for thistle seedlings on Friday at Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, I crossed from the Carboniferous period to the Permian period.  That is, I witnessed the seasonal emergence of scaly-skinned animals with eggs that have protective shells (reptiles) while slimy-skinned animals that lay their eggs in moist environments were slipping into their summer hideaways (amphibians).  Reptiles are kings of the summer, while coastal California's amphibians are more active in the winter-wet period.

Draped over a yellow starthistle seedling, I saw the first snake of the year - a Santa Cruz aquatic garter snake.   Sunning on the new section of the White Oaks Trail, this was probably a young-of-the-year snake only 8" long and 1/4" wide.  Aquatic garter snakes are born in late August to mid-October.

Newt crawling back into the earth for the dry season.

March was exceptionally wet with  20 days of rain and mean temperatures in the 50's.  The frogs, toads and newts used the extended wet season to continue laying eggs in ponds and streams.  Last week, a few dry and warm days occurred and the reptiles started coming out of their winter dens.  On Saturday, I saw a western fence lizard sunning itself on a Dipper Ranch road; its entire body was trembling as if it was trying to shake off the winter cold.  I know some mammals shake violently as they first come out of hibernation in order to speed up their metabolism, but I am not sure if the ectothermic reptiles go through the same process.

Western fence lizard not moving very fast yet.

On the Monte Bello hike, I saw a juvenile alligator lizard, a western skink missing its tail but still vigorously beating its way among the lush sprouts of the spring grassland, and a slow fence lizard.  The fence lizard bolted inside my pant leg as if, recently emerged from its underground winter dreams, it hadn't yet memorized the usual local shady retreats under rocks and into gopher holes.

The Santa Cruz gartersnake subspecies has a dark iris.
The aquatic gartersnake species to which it belongs usually has
8 upper labial scales (scales above the lip),
with the 7th longer than the 6th (counting from the front) .

Gartersnakes seem to be more tolerant of cool, early spring temperatures than other local snakes. In 2010, while giving a tour of the ranch to innocent city kids on March 6th, I snatched up a coast gartersnake that suddenly appeared.  Everyone was surprised especially the kids' father.

This coast gartersnake was the first snake I saw on the Dipper Ranch in 2010.

The yellow-bellied racers should start showing up next.  A few days ago, a neighbor told me he lifted a metal plate that had been sitting on the ground for  many years and found a cold rattlesnake resting there.  The snake was so slow, he scooped it up in a bucket and moved it to another protected place.  I have a saying -  most snakes don't get moving around here until the first three consecutive hot days  (greater than 80 degrees F), especially the larger gopher snakes and rattlesnakes.

Santa Cruz gartersnakes are black with a yellow dorsal stripe.

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See also:
Santa Cruz garter snake, Thamnophis atratus atratus
alligator lizard, Elgaria sp.
western fence lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis
western skink - Plestiodon skiltonianus 
yellow bellied racer, Coluber constrictor
northern Pacific rattlesnake, Crotalus oreganus oreganus


Robert  C. Stebbins, Western Reptiles and Amphibians, Third Edition, 2003.