In eighteen summers on Goose Creek, this is the first rat snake (of scores) that was not black. Most have no hint of a pattern on the dorsal surface; this one does.
We’ve transported four snakes to other parts after catching them eating our eggs (well, our hens’ eggs) and then spotted another thirty feet of rat snake at various places about the farm.
We saw fewer brown water snakes this year, right many queen snakes near the creek, and not a single corn snake. And no copperheads–which thankfully have been rare: four in 18 summers.
And now the day of the snake is almost passed again for another year. And I’m pleased to have spotted this one next to the barn rock foundation–in the grass, except that the day before, I’d taken away his usual hiding cover with the string trimmer.
That’s a SNAKE – we only have grass snakes here
Wow! I never see snakes here in the West.