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05/30/11, 01:17 PM
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free leonard peltier
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: NC
Posts: 2,073
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*warning snake pic id .. and strawberries
Dadgummit... Yes, google is my friend many times. However, all the pics I got of common snakes here in North Carolina were very different than what I have in this pic.
I figured it's a black snake, and am quite happy to have him on my property if that's what it is.
But that coloring, faint as it is, and not very defined, has me wondering. What is it? 
I am better at identifying poison or not if I can see the face and head pretty close. But that's just not always possible.
Please help if you can id. Edited to add: Apologies for the size. I'm not experienced with fixing the sizes when uploading. And for estimation, the snake was probably about 3 1/2 -4 feet long?
If that gave you the heebie jeebies, here's some nice strawberry preserves in process you can look at 
Last edited by partndn; 05/30/11 at 01:20 PM.
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05/30/11, 01:24 PM
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Animal Addict
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Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Maryland
Posts: 12,211
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Possibly a rat snake? If so, harmless and cute at the same time. 
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Becky
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05/30/11, 01:55 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Austin-ish, Texas
Posts: 5,000
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Yep, looks like a ratsnake to me, too.
Here's a photo of a similar one that our little Shiba Inu dog killed in the mint garden last week:
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"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy
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05/30/11, 01:59 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Austin-ish, Texas
Posts: 5,000
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Just remembered that I have a photo of one quite similar to the one you posted. I found this snake in the horse barn last month. He was about the same size as the one in your garden.
Sorry for the blurry photo, but you can see that he had the same kind of color patches on his back.
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"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy
Last edited by farmergirl; 05/30/11 at 02:03 PM.
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05/30/11, 02:01 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Monroe Ga
Posts: 4,637
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they can look a lighter color if they are about to shed their skin going from black to gray in color. Looks like a rat snake to me as well.
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I'm a goat person, not a people person,
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we will be adding a new breed in the spring 
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05/30/11, 02:02 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Central Texas
Posts: 2,739
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I just did a blog post about rat snakes in our area. A couple of good pictures there for comparison:
http://sandhollerfarm.com/?p=416
The one on the door was dark like the one you saw but the second one (the last three pics) was a bit lighter.
And I didn't finish reading the title before I opened the post...and quickly scanned the pictures...and thought you made a big pot of bloody snake soup!  I'm scarred for life...
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05/30/11, 02:06 PM
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free leonard peltier
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: NC
Posts: 2,073
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Thank you! I think y'all are right.. rat snake.
Good! Cause he's long gone now. Would've hated to miss an opportunity to fire one off on Memorial Day. 
I'm never bothered by the non poison ones being close by. They don't bother anything and dispatch stuff I hate. 
Reptyle - nice little fill in the blank thing there. It took me a few tries to get a suggestion, and yep, the possibilities that came up were rat snake or black racer.
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05/30/11, 02:10 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Austin-ish, Texas
Posts: 5,000
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Great blog post! Is it okay if I put a link to your blog on my farm blog?
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"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy
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05/30/11, 02:14 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Central Texas
Posts: 2,739
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Quote:
Originally Posted by farmergirl
Great blog post! Is it okay if I put a link to your blog on my farm blog?
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Hey sure thing! And let me know the url of your blog!
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05/30/11, 02:14 PM
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free leonard peltier
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: NC
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Quote:
Originally Posted by madness
I just did a blog post about rat snakes in our area. A couple of good pictures there for comparison:
http://sandhollerfarm.com/?p=416
The one on the door was dark like the one you saw but the second one (the last three pics) was a bit lighter.
And I didn't finish reading the title before I opened the post...and quickly scanned the pictures...and thought you made a big pot of bloody snake soup! I'm scarred for life... |
  Oh my!!!!! That's what you get for going so fast! 
Seriously, I'm sorry! I was trying to lighten things if some skeerdies were peekin and regreted it. Had no idea that might look like 
Yes, pretty convinced of rat snake.
Slither on my friend.. kill the rats and such!
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05/30/11, 02:45 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: North-central Virginia, Zone 7a
Posts: 674
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Aw, rat snakes are nice to have around--they're great at eating rodents and such. We have them show up looking grey and black like that and more solid black around here as well. Coolest thing I ever saw was a rat snake that was lurking on the edge of the roof of our old store lashing out a loop of it's body to snag a starling--I was riding my pony down there, heard this weird strangled screech and looked up to see the limp body of the bird dangling from the snake's looped body.
Not so neat but still a funny story was the time that my father shuffled into his and my mom's bathroom one night, turned on the light, and found a large, torpid blacksnake draped over the back of the toilet. Thank goodness it was a cold night or we might have had a hard time getting it out of the house.
Last edited by Mulegirl; 05/30/11 at 02:49 PM.
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05/30/11, 03:35 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Eastern North Carolina
Posts: 34,229
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Quote:
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the possibilities that came up were rat snake or black racer.
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Rat Snakes are flat on the bottom, while most other snakes have a round profile
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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
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05/30/11, 03:45 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 124
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Around here we would call that one a rat snake and give him a free pass to all attractions except the chicken house. Baby chicks are hard for any snake to pass up.
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05/30/11, 06:34 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Hill Country, TX
Posts: 720
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I had a pretty big one in the garage this morning - it slithered out quick when I opened the garage door. I'm going to turn the light on first next time. Yikes. We were both surprised.
Thanks for the strawberries picture. I think it helped erase the vision from my mind. That was very kind of you.
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05/31/11, 04:15 PM
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 690
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Partndn,
Definitely at rat snake.
Farmergirl,
Definitely not a rat snake in your picture. Your snake looks like a water snake, Genus Nerodia, to me. I am not sure of the species, and I don't have a guide handy right now.
KMA1
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05/31/11, 10:36 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 146
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We had two of the same kind today, but they were feasting on eggs. One in the laying hens nest and the other on eggs from a setting hen. Bad snakes.
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06/01/11, 02:25 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Nevada
Posts: 485
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I would have to say rat snake as well. We raise rats for feeders and came out one day to find a cage with no rats just one very swollen rat snake! He couldn't get himself back out of the cage after he had his feast! 
BTW...those strawberries look good!
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Cold Creek, NV
"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went."
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06/01/11, 10:43 AM
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free leonard peltier
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: NC
Posts: 2,073
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Silly pig, that snake you saw Norcalchicks.
I haven't seen but the one this year so far. Right now, it's so hot here, you just turn to goo when outside unless you're one of the cold blooded ones!
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06/01/11, 10:45 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 888
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First one definitely a rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta sp), color a bit "off" since from the milky eye caps it's preparing to do a skin shed. There's a whole range of subspecies with varying colors running from the Florida Keys (orange- Everglades Rat) to central Fla (yellow- yellow rat) to the SE states (gray with obvious blotches- gray rat) to northern states (very dark/black- black rat) on out west into Texas with still other color versions. They're all pretty much the same animal, adults 4-6' long or a bit more, rodent and bird eaters, plus bird eggs. NC is sort of in-between gray and black for color, often with the blotches showing some like the one in the photo. As a side note, there's also the black *racer* which is commonly called a "black snake" too. The racer is rather a different snake, the easy way to tell the difference is intuitively obvious, the racer bugs out very quickly, it's not easy to catch one, plus will typically bite the bejeezus out out of anyone daring to grab it, often with raking motions digging and scratching with its teeth. The rat snake tends to climb trees and go up structure walls with the black racer generally staying on the ground, chasing small prey like lizards, mice, frogs and other snakes down and swallowing them without constriction (where the rat snake truly constricts and kills before swallowing prey.)
KMA1 knows snakes, too. The mint-patch critter looks like some sort of water snake to me, also. Bet there's a pond or stream not too far from where it was snarfed by the dog?
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