So who said they rarely see snakes in the wild? Me? Yikes, I should have know better than that.
Today on our hike I took a little side trail because I could see some delphiniums blooming on the hillside. I was by myself and down about 20 yards from where I left Mr. A and our dog sitting in the shade.
I was busy taking photos when I looked to my left and just a few feet away was this huge snake laying half on the trail and half in the dry grass.
He was so still that I thought maybe he was dead and at first I couldn’t see his head. I hollered up to my son not to come down with the dog because there was a really big snake. He wanted to know what kind because immediately we think rattlesnake when we see a big snake.
I checked his tail and didn’t see a rattle and then I moved ever so slightly closer to see if I could locate his head. Wow! He was a big snake but I did manage to see the head and it was round and not diamond shaped so I felt fairly comfortable identifying it as something other than a rattler. I am guessing that he was at least 5 feet long. I snapped a few photos so we could take a closer look once we got home and make a positive identification. I didn’t get the whole snake in the photo and I did not take a photo of his head since I did not want to get that close to a live snake.
We had done the preparation work (you can read our entry HERE) for all the snakes on our list last week so I thought it was either a kingsnake or a gopher snake. We came home and pulled out the field guide and sure enough….gopher snake or Pituophis melanoleucus. The guide says gopher snakes can be up to 7 feet long. They eat small animals such as gophers, mice, ground squirrels, and small rabbits. They squeeze their prey until movement stops and then it swallows it whole.
I found this graphic online for our future reference:
Know Your Snakes: Differences Between Gopher Snake and Rattlesnake
I knew we wanted to do more snake study but I never dreamed a subject would come our way so quickly.
I would have PASSED OUT!!
Yes, that is a big snake! I was wondering if you would suddenly see more snakes now that you said that you rarely see them in the wild. That always happens to me! I have never heard of a Gopher snake. It is so neat seeing how all the wildlife is the same and yet different in the many places that the nature study posts are from. I thank you again for all the work you do.
-Phyllis
I’ll give ya a big – It Serves Ya Right! Makin’ us go out looking for them . . . . .Glad you got to join the fun too!
I find that I have such a visceral reaction to a snake. Especially one in the wild, but even a snake in a zoo or a museum. As if there is some bone deep recognition of being in the presence of something that is not my friend.
Eels in Hawaii were similar, if perhaps even a bit worse for the sense that I was in their environment, not my own.
Neat! I have never heard of a gopher snake. I wish we would see more snakes. Here (northern NY) I’ve only ever seen garter snakes.
I have only seen one snake in our yard in 7 years. Oop, maybe I shoudln’t have said that. lol. We will be crawling with them now.
Blessings
Diane
Oh my goodness! Now THAT is a SNAKE! 😀
Sebastian,
My son and I talked about that very gut reaction we have to snakes on our hike back up the hill. Lizards, no problem. Geckos, no problem. Newts, no problem. But put a snake there in front of you and the reaction is to immediately recoil back.
Must be Biblical. 🙂
Barb
WOW!!! That is a big snake! I think it would be very interesting to see it in the wild, but I would want to be able to identify what type it is before getting closer too.
How neat! And, isn’t that amazing that you had just prepared for such an encounter. 🙂