What do I have here?

[SuperChooch]

I let my dog out this AM and noticed she found something of interest in the lawn. This snake was striking and faux rattling at her. I managed to get her away and scooped him up in this bucket. Is it a juvenile racer? (Before anyone gets concerned, he is perfectly safe, I just walked him to the edge of my yard and let him go )

 

[Teegate]

I am confident that is not a racer.

 

[Teegate]

Maybe a young Black Rat????

 

[SuperChooch]

It was surprisingly aggressive. It wasn't like a garter that would attempt to flee at all costs. When my dog got to it, it stood its ground and repeatedly struck at her until I got her away from it and even then it didn't flee. My first thought was it looked like a rattler, but just assumed that is too unlikely.

 

[bobpbx]

My first thought was it looked like a rattler, but just assumed that is too unlikely.

Well, if you are not certain, don't take a chance like that. Go by other features of the snake. I'd hate to see someone bit by just making an assumption.

PS: you knew you'd get a comment like mine, right?

 

[SuperChooch]

Lol! Well, just because I thought it was highly unlikely, doesn't mean I didn't behave as if it were. I stayed way out of range.

 

[SuperChooch]

I put a big bucket over it and slide a folder underneath. I didn't do the ol "wave one hand in front of his face and grab him with the other" trick I would do with a garter.

 

[92 Blazer Jeff]

Looks like it could be a corn snake.

 

[Don Catts]

Corn snake is a possibility. It looks more like a rat snake or maybe a black water snake. I guess we have to wait for Al to check in.
Whatever it is it's a beauty.

 

[Teegate]

Corn looks good. I guess there are different shades because it is slightly different than the photos online. Just like Rattlesnakes.

 

[Gibby]

Juvenile Black Racer

 

[Teegate]

It must not have wanted to race because I am never able to get near them. How can they look like that when they are young and be all black later?

 

[SuperChooch]

Thanks all. Very neat looking snake.

 

[manumuskin]

Gibby is correct.They look very different then adults but have the same bad attitude.

 

[NJChileHead]

What you have in that container is an Eastern milk snake, Lampropeltis t. triangulum. They can be very nasty and their coloration variable.

 

[SuperChooch]

So now it gets interesting, a milk snake or a black racer So what would a defining characteristic be to tell them apart?

 

[NJChileHead]

Ack, I blew it. I've only seen neonate racers or adults in the fields, not the intermediate juveniles. I looked them up, and they do look like this. My rationale for calling it a milk snake was 1) the white ground color with the darker red dorsal blotches and 2) that the dorsal blotches don't go all the way down (which, if it were a milk snake, would make it an Eastern not a coastal plains milk).

In googling images for juvenile black racer, the juveniles do look like these. The tail also looks longer and thinner than the milks. Behavior points to it too, including the tail rattling.

Racer it is!

 

[NJChileHead]

My newly hatched neonate from last year (got to watch the egg hatching):

 

[manumuskin]

I have only caught two milk snakes in my life and they were adults,one in southern NY and the other in Spruce, WV so I could have been mistaken as well.I have caught lots of Juvenile black racers and raised some to adulthood when I was a kid so I took it for a black racer off the bat but if the two look very similar I could have made a mistake as well.No mistaking the adults though

 

[NJChileHead]

No mistaking that disposition either. Yeesh.

It's surprising how similar they look at that stage (Eastern milk snake below):