FOY: Eastern Black Rat Snake

at the top of the basement entry.  Maybe 4 feet long.

Snakes

Around 1345 today, Kilo and I were in the meadow fixing some tree cages.  We were driving on the driveway towards the shed when I noticed an Eastern Black Snake, about 5 ft long, sunning on the Locust side of the driveway.  As I pulled up even with the snake, the RTV vibrations seemed to spook it; it moved back into the grass towards the Locust trees.  I had turned off the RTV so I could reach my phone camera to take a few pictures of this snake when I noticed Snakey #2 moving towards this snake from the tree line.  They turned out to be more interested in each other than in me;  they entwined and kept their bodies coiled together while their heads bobbed back and forth, sometimes about 6 inches off the ground as they slowly crawled forward.  This dance went on for about 10 minutes, and I took several pictures.  I was beginning to think about taking a video when one snake disengaged and headed for the trees.  The other snake started out across the driveway towards the RTV.  I got out and directed that snake around the RTV and into the forest below the shed.

FOY: Black snake

Here is our first of the year Eastern Black Snake (aka Eastern Black Rat Snake).  When Leslie first spotted  him he was crawling along the side of this White Pine Tree, looking into the hollows and wood pecker holes to see what was living there.  When I approached he was moving from the pine tree to an adjacent maple tree sapling.  I went up and touched his side and he moved more quickly towards the maple, but he did not move aggressively towards me.  He was more interested in moving away from me.  Temperature was in the mid-70s, so he was probably a bit more sluggish that he would have been under normal circumstances. 

Buddy followed Jonathan's lead by running home this morning without telling me where he was going.  I searched below the walnut grove in the woods and by Pruss's creek for a while in the rain before mumbling choice words all the way home. I couldn't have been more surprised to see him sitting patiently at the front door.