Photoshoot with a foxsnake

Last Friday my son found this little guy under the same plastic sheet that he's been finding hognose and garter snakes. This guy was feisty and bit my 6 year old daughter and made her cry (but she got over it!) and he also bit me whe I moved my hand near the side of him, right between my fingers! It stung afterward more than it hurt at the time. Isn't he beautiful?! We still have him, and I am debating on keeping him.

We also found hognose, an adult foxsnake, and a big red-bellied snake that day too. In fact, my son found ALL of those. I helped him get the big foxsnake out of the vines by our house, since he was so tangled. That took awhile! I'll post the other photos of the kids holding the snakes at some point.

Nice snake. Seems like you get a lot of snake action. You can just catch and keep native wildlife legally?

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We haven't kept anything we have caught yet. You can possess up to 2 western foxsnakes if you are a resident of WI.

You're so lucky, can't keep ANY native snakes here, not even captive bred ones.

I don't own any native to WI species so I never really concerned myself that that part of the law, but when we started finding snakes, I looked it up. You can't keep certain ones, like black rats or bullsnakes, unless they were obtained out of state and even then, only 2 of them.

I wouldn't consider keeping an adult foxsnake, but this little one ... maybe.

Yeah, we can't own any native species, even if they're captive bred AND obtained from out of province. Sucks, I want a Western Hognose so bad, sigh

Very nice photos. He looks like a feisty one. I've never had one bite me.

Thank you! I am sure you are not as threatening as a bunch of children and a dog! It was fine besides rattling a little, but then once Rylee the dog got in its face and it bit her twice, it was a lot more on edge.

We let it go where we found it. Such a beautiful snake! I think they are my most favorite to find, because they are similar to the snakes we keep and enjoy.

Very cool Spy. You have such a way with the camera and always manage to bring out the best colors in your animals when you take these pics. I could really learn from you.

Do you mind posting your camera specs and settings you use? Not trying to take away from the actual post of this beautiful creature, just curious. My wife and I have discussed upgrading in the not too distant past and I may honestly consider it after seeing this spring/summer's threads on natural field observation.

I think my favorite thing about this snake is the way it's eye color just really compliments it's body color. Also, those brown lines under it's jaw line/mouth opening really give it some attitude and character.

Thanks a wonderful compliment! I appreciate it. I am enjoying the learning process myself. In fact, after viewing these pictures I began to think of what I'd do differently. I know I'll get a next time, whether it is with a wild herp or one of my own! I even have separate rocks outside, 3 for my captive snakes and 1 for the wild ones that I find.

I use a Canon T3i with either the lens that came with it or my telephoto lens (55-250mm). That is what I used here, so I could back up from the foxsnake. I'd LOVE a macro lens, but I already spent enough this past spring on my camera and lenses so maybe next year.

It was in manual mode, f/8, 1/320 sec, and ISO 400. I manually focus as well because the auto focus does not do a good enough job capturing wriggly snakes. Next time I will work on lowering the ISO.

It helps tremendously to have a beautiful model, and this foxsnake was just perfect. He had just finished biting my 6 year old daughter and was in a feisty mood. Later he bit me, too!