I never heard of this snake so looked him up and discovered an
interesting dilemma. The SF garter snake (endangered) feeds on the
California red-legged frog (also endangered). :-)
Chuck Norcutt
Moose wrote:
> On 6/15/2010 7:44 PM, NSURIT@xxxxxxx wrote:
>> ...
>>
>> Does anyone else have snakeboots in their kit or interesting snake stories
>> while out photographing?
>>
>
> Just the problem - that my most interesting snake meeting was when I was
> out NOT photographing. Many years ago, I was off getting away from work,
> home, etc. for a couple of days. The point was quiet, introspection,
> etc. So when I went on a long walk out toward the point at Point Reyes,
> I intentionally didn't have a camera with me.
>
> So of course a snake slithered onto the trail in front of me. I've lived
> around here all my life and used to hang around with kids in HS who were
> budding herpetologists. I had never seen anything like this. About 2-2.5
> ft. long, slimish, rather undistinguished, sort of slightly greenish
> muddy color - except for the bright red head!
>
> When it sensed me, rather than slithering away, it took a quite
> aggressive posture, forming a figure eight/infinity symbol, tail on the
> bottom pointed away from me and head on top, raised toward me. It sure
> looked ready to strike.
>
> I "knew" it wasn't venomous, 'cause there aren't such things in Calif.
> that don't have triangular, pit viper heads. Still, I was taken aback,
> and stayed clear of it's striking range. It stayed long enough for me to
> look pretty carefully. It did have some pretty faint stripes down the
> sides of its back, so I'm thinking some sort of garter snake. It
> eventually tired of my refusal to take its challenge and headed off into
> the tall grass.
>
> The visitor center was closed that day, but next time I was there, I
> checked and found it was an endangered local species, identified in the
> book as a red-headed garter snake. Searching on the web now, it seems to
> be more commonly called a San Francisco garter snake.
>
> Boy did I wish I'd brought a camera!! I use that experience as an
> internal object lesson to encourage myself to always have a camera with
> me. :-)
>
> Snake Boy Moose
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