Serpents du jour: The North American Green Snakes

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Friday, August 9. 2019

Serpents du jour: The North American Green Snakes

The Eastern and Central US has the Rough Green Snake (New Jersey and south) and the Smooth Green Snake, in the Northeast. These skinny bug-eaters are often referred to as "Grass Snakes," although both like to climb in vegetation.

They are so well-camouflaged that they are rarely seen, and they tend to freeze when disturbed. I think I once saw a Rough in a bush in southern CT, but I can't swear it was a Rough because it moved too quickly for me to grab it to check it's ID.

I love seeing snakes in New England. We don't have enough of them except for the regular Garter Snakes that always startle you when they are curled up in a Zucchini plant and the gigantic Black Snakes on stone walls and in the sand on Cape Cod. Did I ever mention the time my Mom killed a Milk Snake with a hoe (mistaking it for a Copperhead) while we batch of kids were playing in the grass? A mythical moment.

Rough Green Snake hunting in a Blackberry patch:

Posted by Bird Dog in Natural History and Conservation at 13:39 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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I see green snakes most often by looking up into trees, where they hang down before falling to the ground or moving to another tree. I rarely see them moving along the ground.

#1 parentofed on 2011-07-06 17:53 (Reply)

I love these guys. They're like jewels. I usually see them lounging around the lower limbs of a tree or in a shrub.

#2 weaver (Link) on 2011-07-06 18:38 (Reply)

Doberman investigates serpent
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhhardin/5657916132/

#3 rhhardin (Link) on 2011-07-06 21:13 (Reply)

I remember these from Boy Scout camp. These are nice, friendly snakes and make good pets. They don't bite and they don't urinate on you the way ring-neck garter snakes always do.

#4 David Zincavage (Link) on 2011-07-07 10:27 (Reply)

I found a huge fox snake in my garage yesterday. A beautiful creature, though it did strike at me a couple of times.

Because they shake their rattle-less tails, strike when threatened and have similar markings to the much rarer local rattlesnakes, most folks kill first and ask questions later. I reached for my camera and shot him on the spot.

#5 Janeen (Link) on 2011-07-07 10:37 (Reply)

I found one of these a few years ago at the base of a larger silver maple. We kept it in a wire cage for about a couple of weeks, feeding it grasshoppers. It would deploy a rhythmic wobble prior to striking even if there was no wind present.

#6 Dave J. on 2011-07-07 13:55 (Reply)

There were plenty of water snakes about when I was a boy. IIRC, there were two varieties, but I have no idea what they were.

#7 chuck on 2014-08-10 14:17 (Reply)

In Southwest Louisiana we have dozens of species, several of which fall under the general category of 'water snake', we have king snakes, blue racers, hog-nosed snakes (tagged by the old folks as 'spreading adders') and all four species of poisonous North American species: Water moccasins, copperheads, rattlers and coral snakes.

Add to that other reptilian neighbors like alligators and tortoises and turtles and lizards, it's like a reptile Mecca.

MC

#8 mostly cajun (Link) on 2014-08-11 09:59 (Reply)

I miss snakes. Had them growing up in IN, also while living in OH, TX, SC, Panama, and even the western San Fernando Valley. But here where I built 42 years ago (old clay-gravel pit) I've never seen a snake or evidence of one, nor have any neighbors ever mentioned seeing a snake, and it's in south Alabama of all places.

#9 BillH on 2019-08-09 16:20 (Reply)

Up here in mass. A milk shake got into a raised ranch, went upstairs to the kitchen where an 18 month child was beating with wooden spoons on his mother's pots and pans and attacked and bit him on the face. I've never heard of this sort of behavior from milk snakes. Do you think it is some contagion from the northeast liberals that is infecting the wildlife?

#10 Judith on 2019-08-09 17:36 (Reply)

Good story here

Or [url=http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2017/01/09/Reptile-catchers-remove-venomous-snake-from-little-girls-night-light/4311483973836/
] more recently [/url]

#11 another one on 2019-08-09 19:35 (Reply)

I almost never check my Facebook feed without seeing a local citizen's post with a picture saying "Auuuugh, what is this SNAKE?" And it's almost invariably a harmless snake that they just need to leave alone. Snakes are your friend.

#12 Texan99 on 2019-08-10 09:43 (Reply)

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Friday, August 9. 2019

Serpents du jour: The North American Green Snakes