{"id":39255,"date":"2025-06-27T06:00:52","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T10:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/?p=39255"},"modified":"2025-06-27T10:29:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T14:29:56","slug":"estate-find-xxvi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/2025\/06\/estate-find-xxvi\/","title":{"rendered":"Estate Find XXVI"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kind of a repeat on this one, but I still wanted to feature it to show what a full-grown adult looks like (the one on the right, I mean.) It&#8217;s been hotter than hell here the past couple of weeks, making even being outside uncomfortable and actually a bit risky, thus I had fewer opportunities to snag something of interest. So we have this little girl (I think, anyway)<strong>:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ProperKing4.jpg\" alt=\"author holding large specimen of eastern kingsnake Lampropeltis getula, by The Girlfriend\" width=\"750\" height=\"636\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-39256\" \/><br clear=\"all\"\/>That&#8217;s an adult eastern kingsnake (<em>Lampropeltis getula<\/em>,) of which we&#8217;ve seen a <a href=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/2025\/04\/estate-find-xvii\/\" target=\"_blank\">quite small juvenile<\/a> before. The Girlfriend was the one that spotted it, though she&#8217;s not fond of snakes at all and gave the barest description as she maintained a safe distance, at least until it was in hand, and then agreed to get the photos &#8211; she&#8217;s fine with a close approach as long as I&#8217;m in control of the snake. This one was quite impressive, likely 1.5 meters or so in length, and behaved herself remarkably well<strong>;<\/strong> The Girlfriend told me that the snake&#8217;s tail was vibrating in typical warning fashion as I picked her up, but I was barely restraining her, only keeping her supported as she tried moving along, so the warning signal ceased after only a few seconds, and she never made the slightest attempt to bite.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ProperKing5.jpg\" alt=\"author holding large specimen of eastern kingsnake Lampropeltis getula as the tail grips his elbow, by The Girlfriend\" width=\"750\" height=\"750\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-39257\" \/><br clear=\"all\"\/>I&#8217;m saying &#8220;she&#8221; because the snake displayed a trait that often denotes female<strong>:<\/strong> the sudden tapering of the body girth at the tail after it passes the vent\/cloaca, vaguely visible here at the point of my elbow. The males usually display a uniform taper all the way along, though these traits aren&#8217;t dependable ways to sex a snake<strong>;<\/strong> that requires a specific reptile probe, which should be of an appropriate size for the specimen so an entire set is recommended, and I don&#8217;t handle enough snakes nor have the need to accurately determine sex, so I&#8217;ve never bothered. The Girlfriend wanted to show how the snake&#8217;s tail was gripping my elbow for leverage, and this image shows the back coloration (in contrast to the belly in the previous pic,) so it works for me. But then I took the camera from her for some detailed portraits.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ProperKing3.jpg\" alt=\"large specimen of eastern kingsnake Lampropeltis getula in author&#039;s hand\" width=\"750\" height=\"500\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-39258\" \/><br clear=\"all\"\/>They really are gorgeous snakes and I&#8217;m always pleased to see them, but more so when they&#8217;re this size. I held her long enough to get adequate photos, and then released her back where she&#8217;d been found. She made another appearance a few days later, slinking alongside the house near the kitchen window, so she&#8217;s apparently staying in the area. We&#8217;ll see if any newborns turn up in a few weeks (or if I stumble across the eggs someplace.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kind of a repeat on this one, but I still wanted to feature it to show what a full-grown adult looks like (the one on the right, I mean.) It&#8217;s been hotter than hell here the past couple of weeks, making even being outside uncomfortable and actually a bit risky, thus I had fewer opportunities [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[4930,4931],"class_list":["post-39255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature","category-photo","tag-eastern-kingsnake","tag-lampropeltis-getula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wading-in.net\/walkabout\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}