Melanistic Garter Snake-Leslie Street Spit

[BC]

I'm afraid this report is a week old. On Sunday, April 22, I was walking the Spit with a friend. I spotted an all black snake on the path that leads to the banding station. It stayed still for several minutes, behind a tree, and a young woman who had been working at the banding station came up and looked at it. She believed it was a melanistic Eastern Garter Snake, specimens of which have been seen at the Spit and on the Toronto Islands. My internet research produced the following link to a photo of one on Pelee Island.
http://thamnophis.tribe.net/photos/dd2d ... 71eb503e7c

[oniedz]

My son and I also saw this snake at Leslie Spit but I could not figure out what kind it was.  Thanks for the ID.