woodjin said:
Caught a black rat snake near my house. They are so confrontational. I used to catch them when I was kid all the time. I did the ol' distract them with your left hand and catch em with your right had trick with him. My reflexes are still good! The tail catch method never works with these guys 'cause they almost always want a face off. Healthy specimen. approx. 3 1/2 feet.
Jeff
Yeah, I agree that the black rat snakes can be of unpredictable behavior. There was a big "pilot black" that I once caught at a copperhead den in Connecticut when the denners were just emerging and sunning at the densite in early May.
He was really feisy and a challange to catch and was the only pilot black I ever found at that densite - or at any other copperhead den, for that matter. I released him after measuring and marking, and caught him at least once a year for four years thereafter until the den was destroyed by commercial homesite development in the gorge (Mianus Gorge, on the CT-NY border). With each re-capture and handling for measuring he was progressively less restive and more docile. I thought that rather amazing!
But when I reached the word "confrontational" in your post today, an image immediately leapt to mind of a big pine snake that I surprised as I was crawling up out of a cranbog ditch along the Wading river. She was so surprised that, rather than beat a hasty retreat, she threw herself into a coil and raised her head, neck, and fore part of the body almost 2 feet off the ground - sort of cobra-like. At that time her head was higher than mine and about three feet away as I was still mostly below her level on the steep ditch bank. Her tail was whiring like a rattler's. And that was the first time I'd heard the incredibly loud hiss they can make by blowing air against that vertical flap of cartilage at the opening of the larynx/trachea. Awesome! Caught her under the handle of my billhook. Took her into the shade and with my buddy's help we measured her against the bill hook handle (edge of haft to tip). She was two lengths plus three hands and one thumb. Turned out to be 6 foot, 11 inches. Biggest one I ever saw! When we released her she resumed her defiant coiled posture. Gutsy. When we'd backed off about twenty feet she dropped and took off with all due haste.
BobM, Bobbleton, Snakeman, anyone else? Anyone know what the confirmed size record for a pinesnake from the PBs is? I recall a record for the species as being a bit over eight feet and I think that was from a Georgia or South Carolina specimen.
Damn; I do miss herping in the PBs.
Dave
