One of the less pleasant parts of walking the dogs up and down the mountain is seeing all the dead animals that people driving cars almost always overlook. There is a little of almost everything — snails, salamanders, snakes, turtles, birds, squirrels, armadillos, possums, dogs and deer. The dogs and deer are usually murdered elsewhere and the bodies dumped along the road. The rest are victims of our transportation system.
I almost never take pictures of the deceased, but a few days ago I saw a snake that showed no obvious sign of its cause of death (in other words, it wasn’t smashed), and was such a beautiful specimen that I did it anyway.
This is what I believe to be an Eastern Milk Snake. Curious Zeke is in the image for scale. This is small for a mature milk snake, so it is probably a juvenile. According to the linked site, the Eastern Milk Snake and the Scarlet King Snake sometimes intergrade in northern Georgia into Tennessee. Make sure you have followed the link to see the picture of the king snake, it’s magnificent. The coloration of the unfortunate snake I saw here seems to be somewhat brighter than the image of the milk snake, so maybe it’s one of the intergraded snakes.
What a shame.
That is a sad sight of a very beautiful little snake. When we were driving back from southern CA in March, we came as close as we’ve ever come to hitting a deer. Good thing it was a Sunday morning because there were very few cars on the winding Highway 17, when a deer jumped on to the highway from the forest and came barreling toward us. Roger swerved into the left lane, and that deer stopped and then ran back up into the woods. If there had been traffic, that deer would be dead.
Mark: I agree that It is so discouraging to see dead animals alongside the road. Despite the fact that there are no sidewalks where we live, Kali and I don’t walk the road verges–the roads are simply too narrow and too busy for that to be safe. When I see even someone riding a bicycle along our roads, I think they’re crazy–these are old, colonial roads that are just about the size they were when they were horse and cart tracks, and now they’ve got cars roaring along instead.
With regard to your previous post about handling the snake in the road, I’d like to relate an anecdote. I once led a group of fourth-graders on an afternoon nature exploration after school. We were walking along an abandoned railroad track and I came across a garter snake–a very small garter snake. I picked up the snake so that I could show the kids that there was nothing to fear, and didn’t that snake sink its vicious little fangs into the cuticle around the edge of my pinky nail, drawing blood? I can imagine what the snake you came across could do if you picked it up!
Robin — We saw someone hit a deer on Technology Parkway a couple of years ago. It was not a pleasant event, for us or for the deer. I once hit a deer. It jumped out and I was not quite able to stop before hitting it. It jumped up and ran away, so it might not have been seriously hurt. I’m always looking for them.
Scott — I used to ride my bike on roads that I wouldn’t consider riding on today. Realization of my own mortality, I guess.
About the snake … that’s the way it always seems to go. I really wasn’t aware of how ornery rat snakes are. I prefer the shy, retiring type.
And, about snakes, Leah said she thinks she saw a copperhead right next to the driveway when she was walking the cats. We haven’t cut down the very tall grass that sprouted from the wheat straw we put out last fall, so it’s great snake habitat.