Can't swing a dead cat without hitting a snake
Category: Local... Nature... Photography...
Posted Sunday, May 20, 2007 at 07:54 PM [GMT-6]

We drove out to look at an open house at Woodland Park this afternoon, and as we turned back onto "A" Street to head home, I spotted this fellow in the middle of the road. I did a quick u-turn, pulled off into the bar ditch, and grabbed my wife's phone to snap some photos.

At first, I thought it was a rattler (the timing was eerie considering the warning we got last week), but I quickly discerned that there was a pointed tail where the rattles would normally be, and the head – while somewhat viper-shaped – didn't really fit the profile. I decided it was a bull snake, which is often mistaken for a rattlesnake, and which is one of the largest snake species in North America. It's not unusual for them to grow to 7' in length. They're not poisonous, and they play an important role in controlling the rodent population.

The reason the photo is so small is that I didn't want to get any closer; the reptile was royally ticked-off, issuing a continuous hissing loud enough to hear inside the car. He (she?) was obviously agitated, coiling and uncoiling – and not a bit intimidated by my presence or that of the car. At one point, it struck at me (immediately following the snapping of the photo on the right; I guess I should have asked permission first). Bull snakes can be aggressive even when not wounded, and they will bite; this one was itching to demonstrate.

Peering closer, I noticed the inside of its mouth was red, and I think I figured out the cause of its agitation. I suspect it had been clipped by a passing car and was injured, perhaps not fatally, but badly enough to strike out at anything in reach. We felt sorry for it, but had no way of herding it off the roadway. I hope it made it to safety before a less observant driver finished it off.

[Oh, Beth – did I mention there are snakes in this post? Oops.]