This one was a semi-targeted find – I figured some representative of the order would be visible around here soon, but this one showed up when I wasn’t specifically looking for it.
Instead of being anyplace along the water’s edge or among roots of trees nearby, this one was found in the middle of the driveway when we took the trash out last night. This is a very young banded water snake (Nerodia fasciata,) but being unfamiliar with exactly what snakes might be in the area (as well as examining it by pocket flashlight,) I did not immediately grab it, instead gettimg down on the ground to examine it closely first. The pattern certainly looked familiar, but the round pupils and stripes along upper and lower jaws pinned it down as a water snake, and the unbroken bands in the hindbody indicated that this was a banded rather than the northern water snakes that I’ve been finding for years. This is much smaller than average adult size, which runs close to a meter in length with quite a thick body.
Familiar with the ‘spirited’ defensive traits of the northerns, I grasped my subject here carefully behind the head, but needn’t have bothered – I have rarely handled a more docile snake, who didn’t even struggle feebly but settled into my hand with complete aplomb. I housed it temporarily in a terrarium before I was ready to shoot some images, and it reacted the same way when I took it out again – ain’t no thang.
This image shows the two traits I was looking for when I bent down close before picking it up: the round pupils and the stripes along both jaws, neither of which are possessed by the cottonmouth (the only venomous snake in the area that this even remotely resembled.) There are other definitive traits, such as the more triangular, pit-viper head and the prominent brow ridge, but I wasn’t sure how well these were developed in the immature specimens. Looking at images from others afterwards, it would seem they’re present from the start.
This is where I made the mistake, though. Wanting some more natural-looking portraits, I went outside and chose a spot in the yard with very little grass or weeds, instead a blanket of old dry cypress needles. On setting it down in a likely spot, the snake recognized this as the opportunity that it had been waiting for and quickly nosed into the cypress needles, which were much thicker and yet less packed than I thought, and before I could even put the camera down, the snake was vanishing under this carpet. Completely. I tore up a good swath of needles hoping to unearth it again and found not the faintest hint. See, this is why I make studio settings for this kind of stuff.
Anyway, it was the first water snake found on the property, so that counts nicely. And I have a few other images from the past 24 hours to feature here, probably right after this.