June 5, 2006 [LINK]

Snake on the patio! *

I found this small (about 18 inches long) snake slithering on our back patio yesterday afternoon, and was worried by that brown pattern that it might be ... After inquiring with the Wildlife Center of Virginia and doing a bit of Googling, I found these snake photos, and determined to my surprise that this specimen is is a juvenile Black rat snake. Thus assured that it would not pose a menace to the neighborhood, I took it across the street to the ravine between Lee High School and the Staunton-Augusta Rescue Squad, and let it go. Bor-r-rn free...

Roll mouse over image to see closeup.

I put this photo and the recent Box turtle photo on the Reptiles photo gallery page, which also shows a Black rat snake photo that I took last November. That one was an adult, so it's actually black.

* That's an obvious allusion to the recent parody movie Snakes On a Plane.