Hey Terri
nice looking little snake. That is a great find.
I have never seen any eastern milks here but I did catch a mole snake once. That was pretty exciting. I'm used to kings, rats, water snakes, garter snakes, ringnecks and worm snakes.
I brought him home, got some pictures, received identification help on the forums and let him go.
Since I wasn't ready to expand into mole snakes I had no reason to keep him.
It was hard to release him though. He was cute little thing.
Has your excellent little find eaten?
To weird donky and cindy
when actually searching for snakes we just go out in feilds, woods, and other potential snake harboring areas and turn over rocks, logs and debris. Also driving the backroads after dark can yeild results.
if we see a snake and recognise what it is we know how to aproach it. If we are not sure of the exact species there are characteristics we can look for to determine venomous or not.
round pupils non venomous
slit pupils venomous
shape of head, venomous will appear to have a larger more triangular shaped head. Less reliable because some species will try to mimic this and the coral snake doesn't exhibit this feature. not really a problem because coral snakes aren't in our specific ranges.
venomous snakes are usually much thicker bodied, for their length, then non venomous. can be kind of hard to tell with younger specimens.
venomous snakes have small head scales and many of them. non venomous have large head scales and only around six I believe.
But the easiest way is by knowing the venomous species in our area.
All you have do is learn how to identify the venomous species in your area. Which is pretty easy when you consider of the four possibilities Terri might have two in her area, rattle snake and copperhead .
In my area there are three, the rattle snake, copperhead and the occaisional water moccasin. Coral snakes do not expand into our areas and although maps suggest that moccasins do not get as far north as my area, I can personally guarantee they do....lol
