What a handsome fellow. You got some really good shots, he looks like he's posing for you.

Actually here is another one where he is really posing

He's a lovely black racer, and very accommodating to pose so nicely for you. The more you watch snakes, the more interesting they become. I predict a long and happy relationship between you and Sammy the Snake. Hope you learn to really enjoy his company! I haven't seen my two black racers in a couple of weeks. Hope they are just laying low during the day due to the heat, and that nothing has happened to them. They always make me smile.

Marcia

Wow - good shots! Yes, it's like he was hamming it up for the camera.

I saw a largish one and a teensy baby one in the garden this weekend. Hope they eat my cuban tree frog.

Beautiful the way you captured this guy!

Yesterday, after a break in the rain, Tootie was mewing up a storm and wanted to come see what was causing her distress. A beautiful large black snake had slithered it's way up the grape arbor and looped itself around the bottom rung to dry out. Tootie was not impressed!

I have a good crop of those wonderful snakes! They eat lots of bad stuff in the garden.
Everyone is so accostomed to them they do not even phase my kitty cat! This is why you keep a camera handy in the garden!Good JOB!

uh....jsvrn...wouldn't you like to come get this ...'friend' for Sammy? I REALLY like the share garden stuff.................

Your's is cute ... but trust me one is enough. I still get scared and the heart races but I am better than what I was on my first encounters. Plus I like to keep my distance. Thanks for sharing your pictures with me.
Jackie

CUTE! I love black racer's! I am pretty sure we have/had one in our yard, though I haven't seen it in awhile. But the back is looking rather weedy, so maybe!

This time of year, I believe the snakes are more active after dark, when it cools somewhat. After all, they are cold-blooded and have to hide when it gets really hot out. You are lucky to catch them in full daylight, I think. Great photos, Beth! Maybe that's Ssssusie Ssssnake, just lookin' for a Sssssammy of her own!

Marcia

Well, Marcia...here's hoping that sssSusie sssSnake GOES to sssSee sssSammy in Jackie's yard!!!!! :) It's a black racer, huh?

Yes, it's a black racer. Enemy to garden rats, everywhere.

I have a pair in my yard and am always thrilled to see one of them.

Definitely black racer, Beth...charcoal to black, long slim body, white chin...all the tell-tale signs! You have a very helpful garden friend in residence now. Hope you will learn to LUV sssSusie!

Marcia

I have probably a dozen of those on our property,
should I be happy??
my chickens do not like them at all

You should be VERY happy, Auryn. They are masters of catching mice, etc, and will not harm adult chickens at all. I don't know whether they might go after baby chicks or not, but they are so helpful in keeping down the vermin population that anyone who has them should celebrate. And they are fun to watch, too, and completely harmless to humans.

Marcia

Good shots! I wish I could convince Sunbeam the yellow dog that the snakes are working with her and not against her! She considers it her duty to kill any non-canine animal smaller than her and not belonging in her yard, rodents or otherwise. We find dead snakes along with the moles, rats and occasional slow squirrel. If she could get the birds, that would be it for them too.

Marcia,
Anytime I read your post concerning friendly snakes I feel much better about leaving them alone. I used to make hubby catch them and take them to the neighbors (who loves them) and release them. Thanks for the reassurance.
Jackie

I really like black racers. They are kind of elegant--for a snake, that is.

I have one major worry about them, however. I have labored mightly to create a hummingbird garden. I now have three or four that visit every day. They like the coral honesuckle, but so do the black racers. I fear that the snakes will get one of my hummingbirds. I don't think I have any hummingbird nests, but if and when I do, I'm afraid of the snakes there also.

A few weeks ago I lowerd my Purple Martin house and found a skeleton of a dead bird and a snake skin. Very disturbing. I have a snake baffle on the pole, but evidently one made it up to the house. The snake skin was old so I couldn't tell what kind of a snake it was...

I'm with Emily -

Several of nature's people
I know, and they know me;
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality;

But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bone.

Oh great! IÂve been bravely advising visitors to my garden that if they see a black snake it is a GOOD snake. Meanwhile, IÂm just like JSVRN  whenever I come face to face with mine I let out an involuntary cry and my heart starts aerobicising! My husband no longer comes running  he recognizes my "snake yelp".

Now Beth shows pics of a black racer traveling ABOVE ground. Oh good, my paranoia doesnÂt have to be concentrated underfoot. I can also contemplate my friend dropping in from overhead.

June (a racerÂs reluctant "friend")

yeah...and not the first time I've found one 'in the bush' !!! my druthers would be to NOT see them.....however....with a canal right behind us...and I do keep putting in plants...... just wish I wasn't terrified!! just gives me chills, to be honest.......and I know they are supposedly 'good'...... oh dear.

One of the best ways to get over being afraid of snakes is to handle one. Contrary to what many people think, they are not slimy at all. They feel like patent leather, and are rather pleasant to hold. But not a wild one, fresh caught. Those can be nippy. Sometime when you are at a zoo or other animal exhibit where they have tame snakes about, you might ask if you can touch one and see if that helps with the squeamies. (I used to be a docent at the Central Florida Zoo, and one of my jobs was to walk around with either the indigo snake or a ball python and let people touch them.)

Tom, the chances are very good that the BIRDS put the snakeskin in the nest box. They often use the shed skins in nest building. It seems to appeal to their "weaving" instinct, and I think they are opportunists who know a good, strong building material when they find one. Birds who really weave a tight nest will often have a snakeskin woven in and out all through the basket portion. If you have a snake baffle up, I'd bet money the bird collected the skin from elsewhere.

As for your coral honeysuckle issue...yes, a snake COULD snatch a hummer out of the air, but the odds are in the favor of the hummingbird being too fast for them. And if it isn't fast enough to avoid getting caught, it is likely sick or old. Hummers build their tiny little nests way out on skinny little limbs, and disguise them by gluing lichens all over them. They have a better than average chance of avoiding predators, so they are usually safe. And for every bird our snakes eat, they probably eat DOZENS of mice & rats & other vermin. The advantages of having them in the garden outweigh the disadvantages, though I can't say they don't TRY for birds when they see them.

Usually with all predator-prey relationships, there are way more food animals than there are hunters, and it all balances out. When WE stay out of it, that is. Mother Nature is good that way.

Wiley, I get a "tighter breathing and zero at the bone" sensation when I spot snakes, too. It's one of the things I love most about them. They always give me the slightest shiver in that split second that my eye first registers what I'm seeing. Then that passes and I sit back to enjoy watching them. (You have to love the phrasing of that last line, don't you? It's always been a favorite verse of mine.)

Marcia

I had two of those mating outside the master bedroom garden door 2 days ago.

My adult chickens have gone after a few of them so hopefully they won't go near the chicks.

ohoh the thought of one of them above my head is a bit much
ive handle burmese pythons
its just the thought thats eeww

It could always be worse. A couple years ago I photoed a coral snake against my house in a flower bed. A couple weeks ago a smaller one was on my driveway slithering across. I refuse to kill even it unless it makes a defined habit of hanging in a spot I frequent. At that point I'd have to remove it, but hopefully could find a safe way to capture and move it. Until then, even they deserve their spot in my world, but preferably out of biting range.

Gary

Gary, if you do see it again in an area where you don't want it, coral snakes are so passive in nature that you can usually just use a broom to "sweep" them into a large bucket and take elsewhere for release. Normally, they can be manipulated into a secure container without a lot of risk taking, though of course, you have to judge each encounter yourself. (This is not something I would recommend with a diamondback, for instance...too risky for a non-pro to handle).

Good luck!
Marcia

Marcia-Interesting comment you made about birds using the shed snake skin in nest building. A couple years ago I was saddened to see a snake skin in the empty Mockie nest. It was kinda woven in but Immediately thought the racer had gotten to the baby birds. Glad to know the birds put it, and tons of twigs, string leaves and paper (a seed packet?) from my potting bench when nest building. It's fascinating to inspect a nest after it's been vacated. You can just imagine the many things they see as tools!