Okay, yes, we had one of these last year, but that was before the Estate Finds were active, plus I haven’t found anything too compelling this week. And in fact, I had missed this juvenile eastern kingsnake (Lampropeltis getula) entirely as I marched past, but The Girlfriend spotted it and directed me to where it had disappeared under the leaf litter; her snake identification skills are not developed at all, since she’s not at all fond of them, but her description of it being “black and white” was enough to know that it was harmless. Since we were busy doing yard work (mostly eliminating examples of last week’s Estate Find,) I simply popped this one into a small terrarium until I had a chance to dedicate some time to it, which unfortunately fell after darkness had.
But I was able to pursue several different perspectives in doing so, including some fartsy ones, and showing off the belly coloration and scale. The species can easily get much larger than this, as much as two meters, while this one is only a little larger than the first found on the property. It was docile and very cooperative as well.
Since it now appears that we’re past the temperature dropping below 10°c at night, we finally emptied out the greenhouse, and so I used a couple of those plants as stages for the pics – in this case it’s one of the lemon trees. The snake took to them very well, nosing curiously among the leaves and branches and climbing just a little higher, rather than attempting to bolt for cover. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve had a snake this easy to photograph – I just wish I’d tackled it during the day. And no, this wasn’t lethargy from the night, either; this species, among many, hunts at night and it was more than warm enough.
This shows one of the reasons why I regretted waiting, since it loses definition against the darkness, and you can barely make out that the tongue is extended. I often have this as a goal when photographing snakes, because it looks cool and is almost expected, but most times the snake only extends its tongue infrequently and very briefly, making the timing quite tricky. But you’ll notice that four of the five featured images show this, including the last one.
Yes, I purposefully positioned myself so that the tongue would be backed by that one blossom of the ‘Pink Panther’ foxglove (Digitalis x ‘Pink Panther’.) Like I said, the snake was quite cooperative, and sampled the air almost constantly (that’s what the tongue is for.) This is full-frame, by the one, one of the few that I found seemed well-enough framed that no cropping was necessary, and the focus was clear on the head. Kingsnakes really are nicely-colored, and it sets off well against the flowers – let me know how many prints you want…