Five snakes on the Shellpot Creek

We gave some rocks by the creek that appear to have a den of Northern Water snakes in them. I assume it is because the rocks get warm in the sun and that is how the snakes get warm on an otherwise windy spring day.

See if you can count how many are in this cleft in the rocks.

This close up (click on the picture for larger) shows at least four heads ( two at the top, one hard to see in the middle, and one at the bottom) though I think there may be more.

Don't forget to include the one that was hiding under the leaves next to the rocks, see its scaly skin in the middle of the picture below.


And one I don't have a picture of in the crack on top of the rocks. Needless to say if I go near these rocks I wear boots and shuffle my feet to give them warning to get away. I only creep quietly to take pictures. I don't remember this many Norther Water Snakes in any other year, perhaps I wasn't paying attention.

Is this a den where the snakes hatched or just a bunch of them overwintering and finally waking up for the Spring? As always a herpetologists opinion would be welcome.

Our Northern Water Snake is back

Lynn just got a phone camera shot of what appears to be a Northern Water Snake, Nerodia sipedon sipedon, in the mulch near our house in the front yard.

We like that the snakes eat mice and other vermin, but we also like that they live in the creek and not with us. Hopefully this snake goes back to its earlier home. This is not the first time a snake this large has ventured into our garden.

Caution - Garter Snake Pictures and Video

Yesterday, several garter snakes (Eastern Gartersnake, Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis) were sunning themselves and hiding underneath the leaves in the backyard near the creek. I would have stopped on them if I wasn't looking.

I got some good closeups, as seen above.

I took several action videos, this is one the best of the bunch showing the snake navigating under and over the underbrush. They can move quickly if they want to.



It was a very windy day on Saturday, so the only noise is crunching leaves and wind. This is not the first time that I have seen and photographed garter snakes in the yard but these are the first videos.

Snakeskin on the Shellpot Creek

I haven't seen another Northern Water Snake this year on or in the creek like years past but today I found some evidence that they are still around. This snake skin was shed in the creek at a spot between the rocks that looked good for a snake to scrape off its skin at.

I put it in the sun to dry and then took a picture. It is very scaly and you can see the finer scales on what was the top of the snake and the coarser scales on what was the bottom of the snake. It is pretty long and probably not even the full snake since the snake looks like it would have been 4 inches in circumference or so.

More Snakes on the Shellpot Creek

This snake surprised me while I was piling cut wood in the woodpile at the edge of the creek. Using "Amphibians and Reptiles of Delmarva" by James White and Amy White as a reference suggests that this is an Eastern Gartersnake, Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis. I saw it once without the camera and it darted away. It came back the second time and I was ready for photos. It is about the thickness of a finger and is about 18 to 24 inches in length. I didn't put a ruler next to it since I didn't want to scare it away, or get that close.

The entire length of the snake without flash.

A close up of the head with flash.

Coiling up and turning away with flash.

The pictures with and without the flash have a little bit of different coloring because the lighting was very shady in the back near the creek. The snake's belly was definitely a greenish yellow as seen in the pictures, and you can clearly see the pattern between the long yellowish lines down the back. This patterning helps me to distinguish this snake from the Common Ribbonsnake, Thamnophis sauritus sauritus. Additionally the Common Ribbonsnake is not found as far north as the gartersnake as reported in the White's book. It would have been quite a coup to see a ribbonsnake for that very reason. The Whites report that the ribbonsnake has been colonizing further north following the streams but they have no reports of one in their book. I guess I must keep looking.

"Amphibians and Reptiles of Delmarva" by James White and Amy White is available at the nature store at the Ashland Nature Center run by the Delaware Nature Society and on Amazon. It will be the basis of a wikipedia page for a List of Snakes of Delaware if I ever get around to starting one. The last snake I saw on the creek inspired me to find out if there was such a list in wikipedia, and then to go find the book. That snake is a a Northern Water Snake, Nerodia sipedon sipedon, but I only found that out conclusively by buying the book.

Snakes near the Shellpot Creek and in the garden!

I now need to be slightly more careful blundering around the flower beds. This large but seemingly harmless snake was hiding in the shade under some hostas two days ago. I tried to get in and get a better closeup but he slithered away under more cover and I was unable to hold camera and stick at the same time. This snake is considerably large than the garter snakes that we have seen around other parts of the yard, and I think it is larger than the ones we have seen swimming in the creek. I estimate two feet in length and twice as large than a garden hose around.

It was the snakes swimming in the creek that caused me to do some more research into what snakes are native to Delaware. I was particularly interested in any venomous snakes that are in Delaware since it is obvious that I will be encountering snakes as the days go by. Wikipedia has a nice list of snakes of New Jersey, which should be relevant, having the same climate though it is across the river. I think that list was put together with ease because it is based on the NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife Online Field Guide for Reptiles and Amphibians . There is no such list for Delaware that I have found in my searching yet. There is a long list of unstartedwikipedia articles for lists of snakes of each state. This caused me to find and buy an old article "List of Snakes of the United States and Canada by States and Provinces", by A.H.Wright and A.A. Wright, The American Midland Naturalist, Vol. 48, No. 3, PP. 574-603, Nov 1952.

I may be inspired to start the list for the Delaware wikipedia article, but I am not done searching for sources yet. As for venomous snakes in Delaware, I recognize Agkistrodon m. mokeson which is a copperhead as the only poisonous snake in Delaware. I will need to do more research to find out what the snake above is. Are there any herpetologists out there who can help?

Update (4-16-2010): Finally wanted to put in here that "Amphibians and Reptiles of Delmarva" by James White and Amy White helped me identify this snake as a Northern Water Snake, Nerodia sipedon sipedon. I probably new this not long after this original post, but I want it here for reference.