Just because, part 39

I knew it was supposed to be sunny today, and so I held off in the thought that maybe I’d get out to shoot something, but the temperature remained quite low and I felt ratty all day, so nothing new right now. Yet, I did finish a minor project (which will appear here eventually, because [spoiler alert] it’s a podcast,) so this is in recognition of that. Don’t ask me how, or what that means, just go with it.

I’d run across this one in search of something else, and liked it, so it became a winter ‘Just because.’

juvenile black rat snake eastern rat snake Pantherophis alleghaniensis clinging to tree bark
If this looks familiar, that’s because it’s Durwood; if it doesn’t, then it obviously isn’t. But either way, ya gotta admit it’s a slick perspective. Juvenile black rat snakes/eastern rat snakes (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) look markedly different from adults, and this one was quite small – as I remarked back when I first found it, I initially mistook it for a length of bicycle chain. And we can see how well the pattern actually works in keeping them unobtrusive, at least while climbing trees – less so when crossing a hospital surgery floor. Not that this happens often, which is good, because that’s evolutionarily negative, as no one says; I think I just coined a new word. Make sure you give me credit every time you use it, you hear?