Hey Wayne, Nice shots. I love the 'find the snake' pics. Also like your attitude - hope this denning site is protected. WS

All snakes in my yard and around it die a quick and painless death. Typically the hedge clippers finish them off.

I found 1 snake in a tree today...the head was missing. Obviously a bird brought it up there and killed it.

I guess we have very different attitides toward snakes. I really like them in my yard and have even been able over time to gently persuade my neighbors to live and let live.

What a neat bunch of pics! I couldn't find the 4th garter snake in the top pic.

How long do snakes typically use this kind of den? Is it just for wintertime, or do they linger when the weather warms up?

I like snakes, too, and have done my best to gently educate folks to live-and-let-live. My interest in snakes started when I found myself ID'ing and catch/releasing snakes to protect them from my ex, who thought they were evil (silly man). I remember one year, in a drought, watching 2 black racers slither into the yard to soak under the sprinkler. Luckily I was able to redirect my ex into the front yard, so the snakes could get a bit of moisture. Admittedly, if I were to find a venomous snake on my property, I would have to relocate it (2 dogs & my bare feet), but otherwise snakes are welcome. I've considered setting my pet corn snake loose in the house to catch the mice. Wouldn't that be a surprise ... reach under the sink for some soap, pull out a snake. (It's happened with a mouse.)

Leslie

Hmmmmmmm...*thinking, here*...."quick and PAINLESS??" Somehow, the lopping off of heads with hedge clippers doesn't sound particularly painless. But maybe that's just ME. I'm with you, Wayne. I like 'em around, though I don't need the venomous ones in my backyard with my dachsie. In the woods, fine. In my yard, I'm happy with my garter snakes and whatever else shows up. Hoping to spot more here this year.

Now as for those PICTURES. My gosh, my eyes are still burning from squinting and staring and trying to turn every rootlet into a snake! You have some EAGLE eyes on you, boy! I finally DID see all 5 snakes in the first picture, though I can't see the head on the copperhead. Does it show in the picture? And I could have walked past that little copperhead in the crevice 40 times without seeing him. I guess you have to train your eye, eh?

Marcia

Marcia,

Yeah the copperhead head on the first picture is on the left side. I think the copperhead in the crevice pictures are too dark on some computers and not on others. I guess different computers have different default brightness/color settings for photos. And yeah training the eye helps a lot too. I see folks walk by snakes just a few feet away from them all the time :-).

Leslie,

They especially like to overwinter in the dens and will disperse quite a bit in the spring (you can actually see migrations of snakes when they do disperse) but some will stay around the dens year round and gravid females will either return to the dens or nearby rookery rocks to give birth to their young uns in the summer.