my annual end of summer trip to western North Carolina...
 

I caught a baby eastern milksnake...havent seen one of these for awhile...and a small male Eastern Garter...

today my boy picked up a 5 lined skink...

Large Male Black Rat coming out of the Barn on Monday...

Today...I went up on the mountain and...

a few more...

that last pic is yellow jackets in the ground!!!

Nice! Except for the huge Wasp nest, lol!

2 days in a row i have seen these same 2 snakes under a board on the edge of the garden...the garter looks like she has babies...late in the year...the milk is a subadult...same spot i caught the 1st baby milk...

small fence lizard from behind the house....and a praying mantis...

WOW
 

I have caught hundreds of Garters in North Carolina before...I have never seen 1 of these ever...this is a the biggest find I have ever had....I believe it to be a female...

Those are some nice finds! Love the garters :) Milks are awesome as well!

Wow! You're surrounded with great stuff!

What area or county did you find the eastern milks? That's one of the species with a limited distribution here in the mountains, and I like to note confirmed findings to try to establish what general elevation seems to be the limiting factor.

I believe it is around 2000 feet...hwy 151...close to Mount Pisgah...Buncombe...Ive been finding since I was a kid there...my grandpa use to call them corn snakes...but he was from Georgia...lol...

I take it back...I just looked at a topographoc map of the area and it says 3000 feet to 3200 feet

check again...highest peek is 4000 feet...ive never found them on the peek...but 3600 or 3700 feet seems about right...

can you suggest good places in NC to go herping? We live near Charlotte

ive never been hunting around charlotte

I'm speculating that distribution is limited by geographical factors and not just elevation if you're finding them regularly in Buncombe county at that level.

I divide this area of the mountains into three basic tiers.
You have the first tier, which is Mcdowell county and points east until you come to the piedmont. You climb Old Fort mountain to Buncombe, Henderson, and Madison counties which are tier two.
Then you go up another step into Yancey, Mitchell, Avery, and counties north up to Watauga, tier three.
For the purpose of reptile distribution this system of division works pretty well.

Cornsnakes are found regularly in tier one, not as abundant in tier two but present, and I've never found one or known of one being found in tier three.
Eastern milks are more common into tier two, but rarely found beyond that.
I've known of three confirmed findings of eastern milks in tier three, one adult DOR in Yancey county, one hatchling I found on a river bank in Avery county, and one yearling brought to me for identification in pieces in a jar from Mitchell county. They're there, just not at all abundant.

There are areas in tier 3 that are 1500 feet lower than the 3600ft you found milks at in Buncombe county. Average elevation for that area though is 1000 to 1500 feet higher than Buncombe.

thanks for the reply - we do not live too far from the Pisgah, maybe we will try there.