I am not particularly afraid of snakes, but I'm not an extreme snake
lover either, and I don't keep any snakey pets. Sure, I know some of
them can hurt you, but by far most of them are quite harmless. I can
positively identify the relatively few venomous snakes that live in
this part of northern Florida. Anyway, this wasn't one of them. It
was 3-4 ft long, and it was in the water. About the only thing that
was dangerous would be a cottonmouth, and it was too sleek for that. A
cottonmouth big enough to be that long would be rather fat also.
Besides, as I got closer the head was all wrong and the snake was
uniformly black except for it's white chin and throat and brown lips
which made it most likely a southern black racer, but not being any
sort of snake expert, this is only a guess. I stopped to watch it,
but it seemed to want to play a game of who could stay still the
longest, and it won when I got bored and went inside. Later that
afternoon I was fussing around the pond again, and saw the snake
again. It had made it about a quarter of the way around the pond
(25-30 feet), but was still pretty intent on remaining mostly
motionless, a game I didn't find too exciting. This morning to my
surprise it was still there, head above water by the edge of the pond.
Now I'm not especially worried about snakes, and I don't have any
fish. There are some pretty big tadpoles, and some large swimming
beetles I've seen, but it has got to be pretty slim pickings for a
snake that size. The question is, if it hangs around, what do y'all
suggest I name it?
--
Galen Hekhuis
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