Carol, thanks for your input! When my BF saw the pics, he said the same thing - salamander. I don't know how I didn't see the legs while I was watching it "slither" around the dirt but he saw them in the picture, like you did. (Well, yes I do know how - my sunglasses aren't bifocals!) But I insisted it had scales and its' tail didn't taper so dramatically. He said maybe it's a skink and we went to the link you posted, actually. Sure enough, we found him, in the lizard section. He's a ground skink. What a cute little thing! I thought skinks were like snipes - make-believe animals to tease people with, but now I know they are real and happily living in my yard.

Since I haven't posted in a while and since the new year is here, I thought I'd post my 2010 snake totals just for fun. Not as many snakes in 2010 as in 2009, but still a pretty good snake year. My 2010 snake total (570 snakes, 81 venomous): 123 Orange-Striped Ribbon Snakes, 116 Intergrade Eastern/Red-Sided Garter Snakes, 69 Western Cottonmouths, 64 Eastern Yellowbelly Racers, 47 Northern Water Snakes, 41 Prairie Ringneck Snakes, 30 Broad-Banded Water Snakes, 13 Midland Brown Snakes, 11 Yellow-bellied Water Snakes, 7 Black Rat Snakes, 6 Diamondbacked Water Snakes, 6 Western Worm Snakes, 6 Intergrade Northern/Prairie/Mississippi Ringneck Snakes, 6 Osage Copperheads, 5 Prairie Rattlesnakes, 3 Speckled Kingsnakes, 2 Flatheaded Snakes, 2 Great Plains Rat Snakes, 2 Bullsnakes, 2 Wandering Garter Snakes, 2 Red Milk Snakes, 2 Eastern Garter Snakes, 1 Timber Rattlesnake (western phase), 1 Northern Redbellied Snake (gray phase), 1 Eastern Hognose Snake, 1 Western Earth Snake, 1 Rough Green Snake.

Nice finds, Ryan.

Yesterday I saw a snake in my flower garden. By the pictures it seems to me that it may have been a garter snake or garden snake. I do not know if they are the same one. It had yellow on it and I thought green. What can you tell me about this snake . Is it dangerous? Jackie