Up first we have four photos from reader Will from Morris, Illinois, showing Nature red in scale and fang. His notes are indented:
Yet another reason for me to like fishing: I get out and see things like this. While fishing the Fox River near Yorkville, Illinois, I came upon a northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon) swallowing a stonecat (Noturus flavus). The Fox River is an environmental success story. It is a much healthier habitat than in the 70s.
He added that “a stonecat is a small, venomous catfish. Yep, venomous. They have venom glands associated with their pectoral spines. That snake has to be tough to stomach that.”
And birds from reader Don Bredes:
Here are a couple of American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) portraits. A rather ordinary creature hereabouts, to be sure, but the bird Vermonters call the “wild canary” is just as welcome after such a long winter as are the daffodils.
They’re easily spooked. One morning two years ago, while several males and females were crunching the sunflower seed on the deck rail, and when I approached the window with my camera, they panicked, and one flew into the door glass. Stunned, he lay there for a couple of minutes till one of our voracious bluejays swooped in and killed it. Then the jay flew off with it for breakfast.
Finally, a reader requests an ID on this snake. Can readers help?
My name is Alex Kleine and I’ve been a follower of the great Ceiling Cat for about two to three years as of now. I was wondering if you could post these photos (they are of cellphone quality so not really the highest camera quality) in another one of your upcoming Readers’ Wildlife Photos section. I need help in identifying this beautiful snake that sadly was a victim of roadkill in Hays, Kansas. I did some photo closeups of the head, and trunk scale patterns for further detail.
In Hays, you shouldn’t have trouble finding a PhD biologist to ID this reptile! 🙂
Gopher snake?
Believe the snake is a Bull Snake – Pituophis catenifer.
I’d guess it’s either an Eastern Glossy Snake (Arizona elegans) or a Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer).
Nice to see the water snake so well photographed. When we were kids in Michigan, my siblings and I would catch them in the pond behind our house and keep them as pets.
The goldfinch often dines on seeds near the ground so sometimes a few of them in the grass look at first like flowers. Keep your distance though they are flighty.
Snakes are the armless, legless, wonders of the animal kingdom. Whenever I spot them in the wild it’s a thrill.
Great images all around.
When I blow up the photo of the dead snake, I can imagine I’m seeing hints of 4 prefrontal scales on the head, which would eliminate the Glossy Snake as a possibility, though I can’t be sure.
So I’d go with Bull / Gopher Snake, Pituophis melanoleucus, using the taxonomy of my Peterson Field Guide, which maps the common name Bullsnake and subspecies P. M. sayi to Kansas. A lot of taxonomy has been done to snakes since I paid much attention, though, and P. melanoleucus had many subspecies then, so I can’t be sure what name is accepted now. Also, people argue fiercely about whether the name Bull or Gopher Snake should be used for any particular individual but as far as I can see, that depends more on the people than the snakes.
I think you are right on all points. Although I was raised to say bull snake. These are fun to catch since they generally do a big show where they pretend to be a rattlesnake, complete with vibrating the tip of the tail and even striking.
I believe sedgequeen is correct about it being Pituophis melanoleucus sayi. I kept one for over 20 years.
Yes, have to agree with you. This is the commonest oviparous snake in Alberta, and I’ve seen plenty of them.
Over in GB our Goldfinches are prettier than the American ones ,so there .
It is a much healthier habitat than in the 70s.
The EPA was instrumental in cleaning up many of America’s polluted waterways. It’s sad we have a president and administration that doesn’t consider that fact a positive occurrence.
Thanks for the nice photos today.
Third watersnake pic: A snake quite pleased with itself.
Hey guys!
Thanks for all of your insight concerning the identity of the snake. I wasn’t sure if there was a specific Ph. D. herpetologist on Fort Hays State University that dealt with snakes so I came on this site for some insight.
So I guess the consensus is probably bullsnake/gopher snake now.
Hi, Alex. According to Wikipedia, the subspecies Pituophis melanoleucus sayi has been reassigned to Pituophis catenifer and is now Pituophis catenifer sayi.