Saturday, June 12, 2010

Lovely Garter Snake!

Look at this beauty!  My husband was outside this morning covering up the grille from last night when he rushed inside and said, "Di, quick come see this beautiful snake!"  So naturally I grabbed my camera and followed him outside and this is what we saw...an Eastern Black-Necked Garter Snake (it took us a while to find out what it was!)  Isn't he beautiful!




It is a mild mannered, non-venomous snake that rarely bites, whose diet consists mainly of frogs, toads and their tadpoles.  Which makes sense where we discovered him.  It wasn't in my garden, but up against the house where there is moisture from a hose I use all the time and where I've seen lots of little toads milling about.  There are also a lot of rocks in that area which I guess provides for great coverage.

We were so pleased to see this little guy this morning.  He wasn't very big, about 15-18 inches but he sure was pretty.  As we watched him, he made his way alongside the house and disappeared between the hose and the rock.  Such a neat way to begin the day :)

3 comments:

  1. Good morning Diane. Bless you for not having a "Kill It- Kill It attitude" about these wonderful guys. They really do have a place in our environment. We had a Vermillion Flycatcher hanging around at the ranch this weekend. Also another flycatcher that I could never quite identify that was working around the deer (we had those big fat deerflys in abundance).

    TP

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  2. Thanks, Tommy. We would never kill one of these beautiful creatures.

    Neat about the Vermilion Flycatcher! They really are beautiful.

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  3. You’re so lucky to live where these snakes are, and I’m glad to see someone have such an enlightened attitude about snakes. Eastern Blacknecks are one of the most beautiful species of snakes in the US.

    Thanks for posting!

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