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First ever Milk Snake
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Posted by danetherton (My Page) on Thu, May 26, 11 at 22:56
Hi folks;
I thought I had found all the native snakes in my area, but...
It has been a snakey week, what with moving a Black Rat Snake from one side of the road to the other Tuesday, and talking to some Landscapers while playing with it, and today, finding a snake crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway just north of Asheville, managing to straddle it with my dad's old Thunderbird, and then catching an unknown (to me) snake that looked at first glance like a Copperhead! I quickly ascertained that it was not a Copperhead (pattern wrong), so there was no need of a stick to aid in moving it, just my bare hands. This is not as risky as it sounds; there are only two venomous snakes in this area, the Northern Copperhead and the Eastern Timber Rattlesnake - if it does not look like either of these (and head shape is NOT a reliable criterion), then it is safe to pick up, so I did.
I was still confused; it was reddish orange, with a lovely checkerboard belly, and blotches all across the back. Corn Snake? Nah; though some maps have them here, I have never seen one, and this one didn't have the spear point between the eyes. I had forgotten my camera at home (AGAIN!?!?! NO!!!!!! GRRRRR!!!!!) Oh, well, I had my Blackberry with its skanky camera, and managed a few photos. My 83 year old mom was in the 'Bird, so I had to hurry, and along with being nipped (small head, small teeth, no damage, though the nips itched for a while...), managed some poor photos, which can be found on my Picasa page at Reptiles and Amphibians.
I am pretty sure (about 99% plus) that it is a Milk Snake, a species I have never encountered in the wild (have seen a few in captivity, but this one didn't look like them), though this one was a bit different from any I have seen; the blotches went all across the back, and the side blotches were reduced, almost like a Red Milk Snake, but very much like the "Intergrade" shown in Conant and Collins (Peterson's Guide) Third Edition, though this "Intergrade" is supposed to be along the coast and not here. Curious.
Anyway, I released her across the road in the direction she was headed, and went on. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: First ever Milk Snake
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| Sure looks like a corn snake in the photos. Paul |
RE: First ever Milk Snake
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| Congratulations, Alex! Very nice find! And yes, it is an Eastern Milk Snake. |
RE: First ever Milk Snake
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Hi Wayne. I was pretty sure it was a Milk Snake. The odd thing about it was the pattern, which is so much more like the "Intergrade" Milk Snake shown on plate 30 in Conant and Collins 3rd edition, or really like a Red Milk Snake. It was awfully large too; I have seen Milk Snakes, and they were rather smaller and had more of the pattern shown in the plate for the plain old Eastern (from the Boone area, collected by Wayne Vandevender). I am wondering if the "Intergrade" happens outside the Mid-Atlantic, and if we have them, or if it might be a rather odd color and pattern variation.
Oddly, for all the years I have been catching and chasing snakes (probably over 50), and to live in Milk Snake range, I had never seen one. I saw your page Wayne. A neighbor of mine was proudly talking about her son killing a 5 foot rattlesnake, and I just walked away; I hope she heard me cussing and saying that the snake wanted nothing more than to live another day, and did not want to run into an ignorant human that just liked to kill things (he air guns squirrels and pigeons in the neighborhood; he was talking about air gunning Woodpeckers, and I offered to turn him in - federal crime! HAHAHA!). Ah well, we can only do what we can do... |
RE: First ever Milk Snake
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| Alex, Milk snakes are fascinating because they have a lot of variation even within a subspecies. You can occasionally have Easterns that look more like intergrades or red milk snakes and red milk snakes that look like eastern milk snakes. |
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