Sunday, July 18, 2021

Northern water snake

When we saw a northern water snake in Virginia recently, I had difficulty in recognising it due to its large size and location atop a stone wall. This is more what we're accustomed to seeing: similar pattern but scaled way down and, you know, in the water.




This specimen was actively hunting the shallow margins of a Cass County pond, and very focused—you'd think such a small snake would be wary of tall bipeds, like great blue herons for example, but this one was seemingly paying no attention to Jessa and her camera. 




I say "seemingly" because there is a chance its attention was divided after all. A split second after Jessa took the photo below, the water snake made a lightning-fast strike at the frog—an easy opportunity, or so it seemed to us—but unaccountably missed. We decided to clear out just in case we were a distraction, and also because it was bloody hot and humid out in the sun.


Happy hunting, Nerodia.

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