First wild snake of 2015

Just chilling out-literally, since it was only in the low 50s yesterday morning.

Cute <3 I never get to see wild snakes here!

It's always exciting to see them in the wild.

Usually by this time of year, I've seen several snakes and a few different
breeds around here. So far this year, All I've seen live were two fairly large
Black Rat snakes that I was able to get quick pictures of with the cell phone,
and the tail end of an adult Eastern King that crawled into the tall grass
before I was able to stop the truck and snap a picture of it. I've seen a couple
of DORs this year along that same stretch of road, and just yesterday, saw
a DOR juvenile Water Moccasin, just over a foot long that had been very
recently run over. The weather here has been brutal for about two weeks now.
Temps over 95 degrees for that stretch of time, and the past 9 days (including
today) it has reached 100 degrees or better. Too hot for most breeds to be
out during the day.

The Two Black Rat Snakes I was able to take pictures of:

I wonder why they do that crookedy thing when they are basking. Hatchlings will do it in deli cup feeding containers, too.

Nanci said:

I wonder why they do that crookedy thing when they are basking. Hatchlings will do it in deli cup feeding containers, too.

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It's funny to see them do that, but not sure it's basking. It's almost like they
freeze and say "If I be still, they won't see me" !....... I've seen them
crawling across roads or out in the open from a distance, but as soon as they
realize something is close, the stop and get that "kinky" look and stay that
way. The snake in the second photo was crawling across the road, and as
soon as I got within 20-30 yards it just stopped and stayed still. I got a
couple of pictures of it, and then reached down and touched it to try to get
it to crawl out of the road. It stayed frozen even after I touched it, and it
was extremely tensed. I reached back and grabbed it's tail and was going
to slide my hand under and pick it up, but as soon as I grabbed his tail, he
decided it was time to get out of Dodge. He loosened up and crawled out of
the road and into the weeds.

I found this little guy in big Cyprus

A fun find while visiting in Alabama! I was worried that the farm family down the road would mistake this guy for a water moccasin, so I shooed him off into the woods. His cobra-hood would have made my western hoggie proud.

bryanb said:

I found this little guy in big Cyprus

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WOW... really beautiful markings on that bad boy !
I've only seen a couple of live Moccasins down this way. One was a very
young Juvenile less than a foot long, and the other was crawling away too
fast for me to get a good picture of it. Saw one young adult Moccasin a couple
of weeks ago that was recently run over. All those snakes were dark gray and
the bands / markings were barely visible.

Cool finds guys!

I suppose I'll share this Northern water snake that was sitting next to me basking while I was fishing on my birthday! She was quite large.

crturley said:

A fun find while visiting in Alabama! I was worried that the farm family down the road would mistake this guy for a water moccasin, so I shooed him off into the woods. His cobra-hood would have made my western hoggie proud.

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I love that pic. What an awesome snake. Beyond that bad boy hood, the curl in its tail is so neat, too.