Snakes

While we were in Canada, we encountered a snake on the trail; a rare sight, since in that part of Alberta, there is only one endemic snake: the Terrestrial Garter Snake.

It was perfectly still. We were speculating about whether it was alive or not when Judy surprised me and pulled it by the tail; which surprised the snake, and it moved off into the grass alongside the trail.

Last weekend at Pawnee Grasslands we encountered another snake; this one on the road.

I think it’s a Bullsnake. Judy the Snake Wrangler surprised me again; this time by grabbing the snake by the tail and flinging it off to the side of the road. (I wish I had known she was going to do that. I’d have switched to video mode.)

Judy was protecting the snake from getting run over. The snake didn’t appreciate the effort, gave a great hiss, and crawled right back onto the road.

Judy declined to repeat the effort for the video cam. (It would have been a great shrieking hissing clip.)