Thursday, May 3, 2012

Road-crossing Kingsnake

I spotted this black kingsnake (Lampropeltis getulus) on my afternoon constitutional. He was about 3-1/2 feet long and was looking for a place to cross the road. I used my walking stick to keep him at bay in the vegetation on the edge of the road in order to take a picture. He kept slithering further along the edge of the road and was quite intent on crossing. After 3 or 4 attempts to slow him down, he finally stopped long enough for this picture. Black kingsnakes are known to vibrate, hiss, and strike when cornered but this chap was not apparently annoyed sufficiently by my interruptions to his travels to do so. Right after I took the picture he scooted ahead of me and across the road.