Snake in the Grass
July 6, 2011
More shocking than encountering a snake on the path along the creek in the quiet of the early morning, was my reaction to same. If there had been a chair, I’d have been on top of it eeeking.. just like in the cartoons. Alas, there was no chair, so I eeeked and jumped and ran and shielded myself behind 6′ tall Lorilyn, all in the span of .00285 seconds. I would not have guessed myself a screamer, but there ya go.
This was, by far, the scariest moment of the day (to this point), but I managed to regain my composure pretty quickly and snap a few pics. This was the closest of the bunch.
For the record, the snake was about 3.5-4 feet long and perhaps 1.5-2 inches at its fattest point– a big and beefy guy. No rattles.
Life of Wry 
July 11, 2011 at 5:47 am
Thamnophis. A type of garter snake; hard to tell the species from a photo because several species live in our region and they vary tremendously. Can be pretty gentle, as long as one isn’t a small rodent. I suspect that it was screaming too, although perhaps not as audibly. Glad you both survived the encounter!
July 11, 2011 at 6:29 am
Thank you, Carole! Thamnophis, thamnophis.. I’ll remember that.