Garter snakes - anyone knows what their water needs are?

Just like the title says, anyone know what their water needs are?

I recently cleared an area in my garden, next to my tool shed, that was overgrown with blackbery bushes and stuff, and I found a snake today looming around a bucket that had some water/liquid in it, and it occured to me that, maybe, I need to provide some water source for them, too in addition to places they can hide.

I mean some nice, clean water, maybe the kind where bees can also benefit from…

I don't know exact water needs, but surely they are happy to find some and likely lap from puddles when they find one.

I'm thinking a bird bath, but without the elevated part...dig down a little so it sits even with ground level. Put some small rocks/gravel, and maybe even a stick over to the edge so insects and baby animals can get out if they have an accident!

We have a lot of garter snakes and the nearest place with surface water that I know of is about 800 feet from the house. I don't know how much they travel, but I bet they don't go that far to sip at the muck. My first guess was that they get their water from the prey they eat, but I'm not sure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garter_snake wrote:Garter snakes live in a variety of habitats, including forests, woodlands, fields, grasslands and lawns, but never far from water, often an adjacent wetland, stream or pond. This reflects the fact that amphibians are a large part of their diet. Garter snakes are often found near small ponds with tall weeds.

I find it interesting that Garter snakes are viewed as semi-aquatic meaning that they will happily swim if given the opportunity.

I live a bit away from any standing water, but I stumbled on something that seems to be a big help.

I have a bunch of stumps in my front yard, rather flat, but that are just chilling there. I put down a large 14" terracotta saucer on top of the biggest stump and filled it with water. I would top it off from time to time. Its original purpose was to be a bird waterer but I found that a bunch of small garter snakes liked the moist space between the saucer and the stump. It gave them protection and a moist hide so they can shed easier.

Not sure if this is helpful.

We have several kinds of snakes living near our home, including garter. One lives in an old hollowed out tree stump. We do have multiple creeks nearby, but no standing water anywhere except some natural "bowls" that formed in trees and tree stumps which are pretty cool and seem to attract lizards. I haven't seen a snake drinking out of them, but I've seen shed snakeskins in the vicinity. I would say, it wouldn't hurt to add some shallow water sources.

I got lots of helpful comments on my post about a micropond recently.

We have quite a few in our half acre backyard, sometimes I'll see three or four in an hour. It is pretty dry here most of the warm season and I don't have a water feature yet, but they definitely are happy here, a few are quite large. Maybe they've learned to utilize my drip system?  I did provide a rock mound but they prefer to burrow in the soil. They also love hunting/sunning in our slash pile.