Snakes

Talk about sightings and get help identifying Plants, Animals, Fish, and Fungi. Share pictures and video.

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hobkyl
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Wow cool. That reminds me I have shots from late March I need to get up.
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Khallera
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That is a Milk Snake. See the tell-tale sign of the "Y" at its head, with the tail of the "Y" pointing towards the tail? That tells you it is a Milk Snake, along with its banding. Northern Water Snakes are banded but very blandly so compared to the Milk Snake. I am getting off track when I state, "When red meets black it's a friend of Jack, when red meets yellow kill the fellow.", and even though that is a bad colloquialism of how to tell the difference between venomous and non - for one should never kill a snake unless endangered by it - but it does define the difference nonetheless. Same for the observation of vertical pupils (venomous) versus round pupils (non-venomous) - though it means you're too close for comfort if you can see vertical pupils! Vertical pupils also equates with a "pit viper" head shape. Learn this shape! A farther away detail that could save one from a venomous bite! A Northern Water Snake is significantly larger than a Milk Snake and again banded, but not so strikingly so as a MS. NWS's are banded in deep greys, browns and blacks, whereas the MS is cream/white, red/brown and black. Both these species are whipper snappers, as in they stand their ground more than flee if too close a proximity to a human/enemy occurs.

Note: The NWS has an anticoagulant in its saliva and will bite repeatedly. The MS is a snappy one, but does not possess anything but spirit. You happened to have stumbled upon a beautiful mature Milk Snake. Mature NWS's are easily greater than 3' with a greater diameter also.
Last edited by Khallera on Sun May 16, 2010 8:43 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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cbobcat49
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Both these species are whipper snappers, as in they stand their ground more than flee...if too close a proximity to a human/enemy occurs. Note: The NWS has an anticoagulant in its saliva and will bite repeatedly. The MS is a snappy one, but does not possess anything but spirit.
At one point when we were close to it, it did cock its head in sort of an aggressive pose. We gave it an escape route and then it slithered off into the woods. I through it was interesting that its a very "straight" moving snake. It didn't have to do much slithering back and forth to move itself forward.
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us. ~Henry David Thoreau
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Kelly
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All I know about snakes, I learned in Matt's Snake Guide. Looks like a black rat snake to me. It was big and gross and in a slightly elevated wet area near Devil's Bathtub at MP Park. So slithery snake lovers, what is it really?
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hobkyl
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It's got a diamond pattern...is it an eastern Massasauqa?
“There’s an inconsequentiality to our lives that living in the wilderness shows up. Mountain are real, they set their limits, they set ours. They expose us, make us vulnerable and strong at the same time. “
--Alison Wat




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Khallera
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I agree w/ hobkyl.
Khallera
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I say e-mail this image to the NYS Conservationist. They will want to know about this, and their biologist will ID it better than I. Here is the e-mail address, just send the image with a brief note to help them learn location and size, etc.. [email protected] Then would love to learn what you learn!
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Matt
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water snake. pattern, color and location found gives it away.
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