Snake ID

Phantomhive said:

Dunno man, cottonmouth near a swim area.... sucker would have been a dead one around me.

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I thought your question was in regards to the garter snake. He slithered off. The cottonmouth was in the rec area parking lot and was killed by the staff there. I refer you to post #8!

aihpcfl said:

You have to weigh the situation and the location. All things considered, I would rather see the venomous snake moved to safety, for the snake and people. That is not always possible, and I understand that. The point is that the default action is not always kill the snake, or at least it shouldn't be.

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Just joined the forums, and this thread caught quickly my eye. As a herpetologist, seeing this sort of thinking makes me dislike the general populace a little less. Good on you, sir.

I'm kind of excited about tonight's trail sighting! I've been hearing about this one since I was a youngster and it's the first live one I've seen!

Cool. I've never seen one in the wild, not yet anyway.

Red touches yellow....

I've seen several Scarlet Kingsnakes, but I just about hopped out of my shoes when I saw this guy crossing the path. There was no doubt this was an Eastern coral snake. When I moved to Florida 20 some odd years ago, I imagined I would see these often. I finished my run just after sunset and was taking a cool down lap when I came across him. Really amazing coloring!

Sad to say I have see a few in the flesh, but after someone had killed it. First one in my memory was in a trailer park in Cocoa when I was about 5. Never saw one alive except maybe in a zoo.

We often have reports of 'water moccasins' in Kansas but there has only been one verified sighting in the very south eastern corner on the Neosho river. What most people see are diamond back water snakes(Not rattlesnakes though we have plenty of those as well) and plain belly water snakes. What sets these things apart is their somewhat official description. Two to three feet long and varying from green-ish grey to dark brown for the plain belly and three feet or so for the diamond back. Trouble is, if you read the fine print in these online resources they will tell you in Kansas they can reach about five feet! And I have seen them that long and darned near as thick as your wrist. The plain bellies become nearly black at that size and look very much like a cotton mouth. I have seen diamond back water snakes I know were crowding six feet long. And let me tell you something, both of these sons of satan will bite you multiple times and they are not gentle about it. Thank goodness they carry no venom but you can bet a trip to hospital is in the works to get the teeth they leave behind out of your hands or legs and a bum full of penicillin. I have tripped up over them multiple times and if they feel the least bit threatened they go right into and offensive posture and WILL bite you like crazy. No Corals here to worry with though.

Cheers, Todd

Diamondback Water Snake(I can't believe how they are getting away with handling this one)

Plain Belly Water Snake

Somehow I know these things are dangerous or can be. But here where I live we don't have any. It would really catch me by surprise to see them haha.

Hey FL Shaver... Missed this post initially. Great pics. That garter snake is beautiful!

I'm going camping/herping next weekend. I'll be sure to post some pics of whatever we find. This weekend is Repticon. Can't wait!

Meemai said:

Somehow I know these things are dangerous or can be. But here where I live we don't have any. It would really catch me by surprise to see them haha.

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For those of us who live in snake country and get out and about, the snakes are there, but they can be hard to see in the woods if they aren't moving. I think most of the time the snakes see us and we don't see them. I remember once when I was a boy a bunch of us walked right by a rattlesnake and it was only the last boys in the rear who finally noticed the snake. The snake didn't rattle, just let us pass -- or that was what the snake intended, but it didn't end that way. But, yeah, when you do notice a snake it can be a surprise, or still always is for me. My first reaction is Snake! and it takes a moment to get to What Kind of Snake?.

We were hiking back to Amicalola Falls from Springer Mountain in North Georgia a few years ago. My son was leading the pack. He stepped right over a small Copperhead! He had no clue! The hike began with multiple yellow jacket stings from a large nest trailside and ended with that find. A 20 mile hike we'll never forget.

FL shaver said:

We were hiking back to Amicalola Falls from Springer Mountain in North Georgia a few years ago. My son was leading the pack. He stepped right over a small Copperhead! He had no clue! The hime began with multiple yellow jacket stings from a large nest trailside and ended with that find. A 20 mile hike we'll never forget.

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Same happened to me a few weeks ago, and my first copperhead in the wild. My wife and I were out hiking. We knew the copperheads were out so we were paying extra close attention where we stepped. We were leaving the trail by way of a wide graveled utility path to the parking lot and I happened to look down and see a little copperhead between my feet trying to get out of the way. Despite my care I still didn't see the son of a gun until I was on him. I jumped three feet and tried to stay up there. The little guy continued his dash for cover.

This was Torreya State Park, by the way, on the Apalachicola River. If you are in the neighborhood you must see this park. Beautiful.

TheVez2 said:

Hey FL Shaver... Missed this post initially. Great pics. That garter snake is beautiful!

I'm going camping/herping next weekend. I'll be sure to post some pics of whatever we find. This weekend is Repticon. Can't wait!

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Curious to see what you find!

aihpcfl said:

Same happened to me a few weeks ago, and my first copperhead in the wild. My wife and I were out hiking. We knew the copperheads were out so we were paying extra close attention where we stepped. We were leaving the trail by way of a wide graveled utility path to the parking lot and I happened to look down and see a little copperhead between my feet trying to get out of the way. Despite my care I still didn't see the son of a gun until I was on him. I jumped three feet and tried to stay up there. The little guy continued his dash for cover.

This was Torreya State Park, by the way, on the Apalachicola River. If you are in the neighborhood you must see this park. Beautiful.

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Cool! That'll get the adrenaline flowing! I think you're dead on about these guys seeing us way before we see them, and that'll be on my mind as things dry out soon and I get back to running on the horse trails. They are so well camouflaged or way down in the vegetation.

Common one today...

FL shaver, have you seen one of these in the wild? When, where?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Indigo_Snake

True story: When I was a kid a buddy and I were sitting on his front porch figuring out something to do, and we saw this huge black snake going across the front lawn. We went over to it, picked up, passed it back and forth, then let it go on its way. Beautiful, docile animal. That was the only one I have ever seen. This was in a subdivision near the east coast in Central Florida and would have been in the early 70's. Wonderful memory.

As a matter of fact, I have! Once and within the last year. I have another short running trail on Little Pine Island here in SW FL. I can't run there now because the horseflies are so thick, but when it is cooler and windy it is enjoyable. Anyway, one day last winter I pulled up in the Jeep and got out. I saw this large black snake moving pretty slowly through the dry brush. I immediately thought Indigo because of not only its size but its slow pace. They are beautiful. I think I have a photo....

I still haven't seen a snake I've wanted to pick up since I was about 11 and held a 6" garter which bit me on the pinky.

Those garter snakes are mean. I remember the green snakes as not too friendly as well.

If you find and post the photo of the Indigo that would be cool. They are amazing snakes.

All right. I found the photo. I remember it well now! I saw him on December 9, 2012. He was moving slowly, but steadily, and he had made his way from an open area to denser brush on the opposite side of a chain link fence. I got a shot of the tail end of him, but you'll have to squint to see him! Right side of frame, about a third of the way up. Bad horizon, too, but it was the best I could do without scaling the fence topped with barbed wire!

EDIT: The resolution is even worse than I thought it would be. He's in there, I swear! This area is a mitigation area. When an area gets developed elsewhere, money is collected to preserve areas like this. Non-native vegetation has been cleared. I have seen a few varieties of snakes, wild hogs, osprey, bald eagles, racoons, rabbits, and horseflies... many, many horseflies.

I'll have to take your word. Not knowing what should be there, I can't make it out.

I went back and read that entire wikipedia article. It says "when picked up seldom bites" so maybe though the odds were in our favor we still took a risk. But probably the least risk that day all things considered. And it was a big, heavy snake. Geeze I remember it like it was yesterday.