Never know who's gunna visit

[juanbenae]

while working in the yard. Feeling very blessed to have this one cruz by.. Had to run n get my phone and the excitement can be heard in my breathing.... Went into the cells of the block wall just after it ducked into the vegetation. Was at least 4' long.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4BUeixqCfk

[masraum]

Beautiful!
King snake, right?

[flatbutt]

Red next to black is a friend?

[Sooner or later]

That's a pretty thing.

Sorry, no picture. I had a bull snake in my house a couple of hours ago.

I tried to catch it him but it slithered out the doggie door.

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by masraum

Beautiful!
King snake, right?

Yes.

Did a bunch of research on them and it likely had just done its spring skin shed so the coloring was extra vibrant. It's also egg laying season. but it did not look to have the egg bulge one might expect if a female was carrying this time of year.

As I said, felt very blessed after it slithered by while I was seeding bare spots on the upper lawn area and was able to grab the picture machine.

[917_Langheck]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Red next to black is a friend?

Red and yellow, kill a fellow

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by juanbenae

Had to run n get my .410 and the excitement can be heard in my breathing....

Fixed it for you.

[HobieMarty]

Funny, I was going to start a thread about a similar visitor that showed up yesterday. We have a bluebird house on a hickory tree in the back yard and I saw something in it and upon investigating, I found that our visitor was a gray rat snake. We had bluebirds in the house about a month ago so, no birds were living in the house at this time.
I did witness two bluebirds checking out the house and so I went out and started tapping on the side of the house with a small rake to try to persuade the snake to leave. It must've worked because about five minutes after doing that, I saw the snake come out of the house and go down the tree. I gently guided the snake toward the woods but it went into a brush pile I had in my fire pit. So far, I haven't seen it around so hopefully it went to the woods.

https://youtu.be/-GofV4r7FrY?si=QuInk8gsmAkAbEcO
Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Beautiful snake! Fond memories of garter snakes and tiny green snakes when I was a kid. Our cat used to bring home black racers all the time, some quite large. She would hunt ducks too but never brought one down.

[Tobra]

Going hunting for rattlesnakes

Frind of mine caught a coral snake about that size once right behind the office. Few inches short of the record

You should keep your phone in your pocket, not like anyone hears you if you holler out in the country

[masraum]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Red next to black is a friend?

Correct, king snake is not a danger noodle.
The danger noodle is a coral snake which has red and yellow together.

Although snake people will say "don't use the rhyme to determine which is safe and which isn't". Lots of snakes can have "aberrant coloration" so you could run across a coral snake that was just red and black or mostly black with very little red or yellow or....

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by masraum

Correct, king snake is not a danger noodle.
The danger noodle is a coral snake which has red and yellow together.

Although snake people will say "don't use the rhyme to determine which is safe and which isn't". Lots of snakes can have "aberrant coloration" so you could run across a coral snake that was just red and black or mostly black with very little red or yellow or....

Got it! No touchy...

[berettafan]

Lots of critters around our yard as we back up to a large field. Last week was a large rat snake not liking the lawn mower, this week was the dogs finding a baby rabbit. Rescued it and put it back in the bed made by momma. Blocked the area off so dogs should leave it be now. Baby rabbits are cute little things that's for sure. Also had a baby groundhog just on the other side of the fence this past week.

Speaking of herding a snake when I stopped the mower to chase off the big snake it turned towards me and started to coil. We had a nice talk where I explained I was just kidding and he could go wherever he pleased and I'd just work around him.

[gregpark]

That's a California mountain king snake and a beauty! I've seen many around my cabin area over the years. Very docile and I've handled several. Good to have as neighbors, they eat rattlers. The one at your house is as big as they get

[GH85Carrera]

Our male dachshund was barking with a "different" bark than normal. My wife went out to see what he was barking at, and he was out in the grass, barking at the house. She called me out there, and I saw this on the wall.

I quipped, look a right angle snake. We closed off access to the back yard for the dogs, and one hour later, Mr. Snake was gone.



We also have lots of these little guys. Evidently they mostly eat earth worms. One of them was in the side yard right where I was about to mow. So I went to pick it up to move him to the front garden, and he coiled up and opened his mouth like a mini rattle snake. He mouth was so small there was no way he could bit me. I managed to grab it, and put it in the garden that my wife also has the compost pile in part of it. It is full of worms, and little insects. I see several of them each year.

I felt just like Steve Irwin picking up a cobra, only slightly safer when I picked it up.

[berettafan]

what is that little thing? is that full grown?

[Geneman]

looks like a coral snake in winter colors.... both just as deadly

[juanbenae]

Originally Posted by Geneman

looks like a coral snake in winter colors.... both just as deadly

Winter? Coral snake? I'm in CA, Coral Snakes are not native here, and it was 90* in our mountains today...

Winter looks like this here.

[juanbenae]

My cat noticed something in the grass and went all halloween tail in her attack posture.... Went out and noticed this lil one and quickly shewed her away to enjoy its company.. When our visit was over, I scooped it up and took it out front and let it go in some bushes where it will have better cover, and many, many bugs to eat on.

About the size of a pencil.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tuAeFj1dmnw

[masraum]

Very cool!

Years ago, I was driving a dirt road in the hills above Santa Barbara and found a California King snake.

Earlier today, I saw a video on FB of a guy that ran across a very young, very small pygmy rattlesnake. It was shocking how small it was. Not the same video, but similar. My guess is that the lense cap in this vid is maybe 2" across.



A year or two ago, I went out one morning and found what must have been a very young copperhead in the driveway. I think it was ~12" long, and it's head was probably the size of a peanut (out of the shell, just the nut that we eat). It looked like it would have had a hard time biting me (but I wasn't going to tempt it). All of the copperheads that I've run into on our property have been very timid.