Speckled kingsnake (or Desert?) wrapped around a Prairie kingsnake... intergrade breeding or defending of territory...??? The prairie ks was much smaller than the speckled ks. Grateful to notice this before getting too close to disturb them.
Initially I was unaware it was eating eggs. I put him back down and he continued to eat.
Location approximate. Two observed active alongside the trail at that location.
8 juvenile specimens and 1 adult (5'+ long) were kicked up from submerged leaf packs along the edge of a swamp.
In situ, with her eggs! Went back two weeks later to find mom gone and eggs hatched. Two babies remained.
This guy was sticking up from submerged riprap like he was pretending to be a banded water snake. This was a first for me- seeing a mud snake in such a manner
From NPS inventory surveys -
Tuberville et al. 2005. Southeastern Naturalist 4:537-569
Lifer! Third VA iNat record. Juvenile male in road. Moved off road.
Seen crossing road at dusk, helped safely across so would not be run over.
Adult mud snake captured in crayfish trap within seasonal emergent wetland. Surrounding landscape is a 10,000+ acre cattle ranch.
Mudsnake eating a two-toed amphiuma. This observation is for the mudsnake. Once in a lifetime observation.
A REQUEST:
When recommending an identification, please adhere to current standards of taxonomy as deployed by iNaturalist at this time — as opposed to identifying and classifying organisms based on personal beliefs about what taxonomy can, should, or of right ought to be in opposition to iNaturalist’s current taxonomy. Comments noting such taxonomic disagreements, however, are welcomed and encouraged. I prefer my observations to be inline with current taxonomic standards as deployed by iNaturalist (as opposed to my personal beliefs) so that this and other observations are readily accessible to iNaturalist users with greater efficiency and usability. Thanks!
If you have any questions regarding this observation, feel free to contact me or leave a comment below!
Janson Jones,
http://floridensis.com.
I believe this is a Striped crayfish snake, though not positive. Yellowish belly and not red like a swamp snake.
I’m a little late to hogtober but glad to have found my lifer eastern hognose! Been searching all week! This guy was dramatic even for a hognose. thanks to @thrashedout for tips!
Lifer! First time cruising and this is the first snake I found
Lifer! And first tricolor! I knew I could get one this year but I thought for sure it would be cruising in Big Cypress or Flamingo not flipped in my yard. It was absolutely unreal flipping my board and finally after two years seeing this thing. Nice aberrant head band too. Subadult (13"). Last two pics are a habitat shot and a pic of it drinking after the photo session, which I thought was kinda cool. Twitched and mock-struck kinda like a kingsnake which I did not know they did, and it actually bit once which I have never heard of a scarlet doing.
Lifer! Legit like the fourth snake of the year, I haven't gotten out at all this month. I haven't even seen a racer at my house before this guy lol! While I'm photographing some lunatic walks by and starts ranting (with plenty of obscenities and cussing thrown in because why not) about respecting nature and that she's gonna report me. I was making sure to keep the encounter legal, so she had no grounds for anything. She was pretty sus, fun experience. I don't recall now if it was exactly at the moment or a bit before, but I was just telling my brother that I didn't expect much quality because of how late it was, but we should still be able to find some racers. Nope! One and only snake, and pretty much the only herp asides from a gator or two and as many anoles. It was stretched out on the grass and I knew what I had to be looking at. Writhed a bit and then posed for a few minutes. It was insane. Pretty cool out like 68 or seventy-even and cloudy, with decent humidity for the dry season and light rain just a few minutes before. Looking back it was probably pretty good weather for muds. It was pretty awesome especially considering I was only expecting a few starved racers. I don’t usually fave my own observations but I’m pretty stoked about this one.
American Alligator
Alligator mississippiensis
Alexander Springs Recreation Area
Ocala National Forest
Lake County Florida
Olympus OM-D E-M5
14-42mm II Lens
PT-EP08 Underwater Housing,
PPO-EP01 Lens Port
& 14-42mm Zoom Gear
Rough Greensnake catching an orbweaver spider. It got close to the web and then stayed there for what felt like 10 minutes (not sure it was waiting to figure out how to catch the spider or because I had disturbed it). After a while, it finally caught the spider and seemed to have no trouble eating it. My first time seeing a wild snake catch its prey!
Aberrant coloration. At first we thought it was a N. fasciata x N. clarkii hybrid but the dorsal pattern is too banded (not stripey) and the ventral pattern is unstriped but not plain, albeit very low contrast (orange vs yellow half-moons). Compare a few other "hypomelanistic" N. fasciata from nearby:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/67151325
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/109373290
Really big ring neck! Was calm, showed no signs of high distress before throwing up a large sharp-tailed snake. I put it back under the cover it was flipped under. Very thin, and in need of a meal now. I feel bad, hopefully it finds something to eat…