Not trying to stir the pot, but both non posionous and even posionous snakes eat lots of pests we don't want in out gardens, sheds or homes. Killing them really isn't nessecary and they can be moved with a snake hook or even a shovel. Killing animals just because they are there and I don't like them seems like a poor excuse. No flame inteneded, but it would be better to throw them back in the woods. I've been bitten by a copperhead and it was my fault and I didn't kill him because he happened to be posionous and I was handling him incorrectly. I'm far from being a tree hugger, I hunt and fish, but don't think the idea of killing because you don't like an animal is very sporting. Garter snakes are great around the garden as they eat slugs and so will baby copperheads.

Hi Wayne, I also love snakes and do my best to relocate them, but a few years ago we came across a very pretty snake that was after a toad in my yard. I live in deep south Texas, 7 miles from the Mexican border just to give you the territory of where the snake was found. This snake was about 2 feet at most and was a light tan color with extreme pronouced brown diamonds. It was the end of February and a cool morning (low 70s) so it was moving very slow. My kids were looking at the toad and I noticed what I thought was a stick next to the toad and grabbed it to move it out of the way when I suddenly realized what it was. I dropped it right away but it moved very slow due to the cool morning. we put it in a container and took it out to a shrubby area just outside of town. Somehow I have always wondered what that snake was as I have never seen one like that before. My thought is that it may have been a copperhead snake since they range from really light to reddish copper to really dark almost black colors depending what part of the valley they are found. Still those diamonds were very pronounced on a short and thick snake. We have quite a few species down here but few poisonous ones. Any thoughts? Josie

dg, You are good to catch that the magazine incorrectly identified the albino snake as a copperhead! I noticed the same mistake so we must be thinking of the same issue. The snake in question was actually an albino Prairie Kingsnake. I think they issued a correction in one of the next two issues.

Oops, sorry Mike. Somehow I read this whole post thinking it was Gary's. The comment remains though, very nice pics and trip documentation-- just add, "as usual!"