Brown Snakes in Grid!

It just hit me that I forgot to write about my very own article about brown snakes (Storeria dekayi) that ran in the current issue of Grid!

Check out the article at

http://www.gridphilly.com/grid-magazine/2010/3/10/gardening-issue-snakes-in-the-garden.html

or on page 19 at http://www.gridphilly.com/digital-edition/ for how it looks in the print layout.

On Saturday (March 27th) I went on a little walk in Morris Park up in the corner of West Philly with my friend Tevin. It was sunny but cool (high 40s), a fine afternoon for a walk and a good time for the red back salamanders (Plethodon cinereus).

Under one small log we found seven of them in both colors (lead back and red back), a couple fat with eggs still to be laid, and even a couple itty bitty babies.

Here are the seven:

The babies:

Here are some shots of the grown ups. Note the little bumps, cirrae, under the upper lip of this guy:
Here's a lead back:
And here's a red back: