Corn Snake

bobpbx

bobpbx

Piney
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Oct 25, 2002
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Pines; Bamber area
I found a beautiful corn snake crossing Lacey Road today. I was surprised with it's spunk. I got it off the road, and I really hope it did not try it again. I did not go back that way, so am not sure if it did.

I'm not good at identifying these snakes, and did not have a camera. Colors were kind of maroon and copper, and looked very similar to this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42389547@N00/3409630249/
 
Boyd

Boyd

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Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
I was walking down by the creek around sunset tonight and saw a little guy right in the middle of the trail who looked very similar to Ed's photo - maybe 16" long or even less. It was getting pretty dark and around 60 degrees so I thought it was strange to see him in such an exposed location. I don't know anything about snakes so I just left him alone, but he didn't seem very responsive - didn't move when I came right up to him.
 
manumuskin

manumuskin

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Jul 20, 2003
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Bob
NJ Corns are notr the beautiful snakes like the one in your photo.The pattern and coloration are much more like what is in Guys link.Our Corns are drab compared to their southern relatives say in south carolina where the Oketee variet of the Corn snake
lives.Corns are on the Endangered list for NJ and are one of the three snakes I've never encountered in the wild,even rarer down here then up there.They are a rat snake also known as the Red Ratsnake and have been suspected of breeding with Black Rats.many Black Rats down here have red streaking in their sides when young and perhaps they do have some Corn genes in them.Jeff is right an immature black rat and even immature black racers look similar to corns.The identifying park for a corn snake no matter the pattern or color variety is the horizontal darker bar across the nose.The other two on my never seen list are the Scarlet snake and the Coastal plain milksnake.I found a DOR coastal in virginia once seconds after the bunghole in front of me ran over it.A very beautiful snake.Scarlets look similar to a reddish pine snake only they don't get very big.They are rumored to be addicted to eggs and only surface to breed and eat at night,mostly during rain.
 
Boyd

Boyd

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Sorry, I should be more observant. It was probably something else. Looking that the thread that Guy linked to, I see I commented there about seeing a similar snake also. They both had a pattern very similar to Ed's photo, but the coloration may have been different. Wasn't a milk snake, we had a lot of them in upstate NY - the house was infested when we first moved in.
 
dragoncjo

dragoncjo

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Aug 12, 2005
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Probably a black rat than. I thought I was getting deja vu, hah. If you ever do see one snap a photo of the specimen, corns are known from your area but very few and far between, they are a very secretive species.
 
bobpbx

bobpbx

Piney
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Oct 25, 2002
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Pines; Bamber area
I looked at all those photos of Juvenile Black rats, and none of them had the coloring this one did. Plus, as the description says, when it turned into its coil, it had flat sides and a round top like a loaf of bread. I'm 99% sure it was a corn snake based upon my readings.

Edit: But as I said, I am unfamiliar with them. Next time I'll get a photo.
 
dragoncjo

dragoncjo

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Aug 12, 2005
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Bob M, you saw a corn, no doubt. You can't confuse corns with anything else here to be honest, especially at 36 inches which is too big for a coastal, scarlet. When corns are young they can look like black rats but from there on out they are obvious.

Al, your diagnostics are correct but the y sometimes connects with the first dorsal and that can look like a coastal plains milksnake. Also the dorsals on a corn don't extend very far down like a true coastal should.
 
bobpbx

bobpbx

Piney
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Oct 25, 2002
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Pines; Bamber area
woodjin said:
Bob, black rat in my back yard. About 16". I agree that at 36" this snake would look much different.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=300439724215:1456413851&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=Share-_-Personal-_-shareCopyLink-_-Sharer-_-Top

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery...are-_-Personal-_-shareCopyLink-_-Sharer-_-Top
Click to expand...

Yeah...no, not even close Jeff. The snake I had reminded me of a beautiful Navajo blanket....with a lot of maroon and kind of light copper.
 
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