Re: [at-l] Calling all herpetologists...

["Mara Factor" <m_factor@hotmail.com>]

Just found a great web site and answered my own question...  It's a Milk 
Snake.

The Insteractive Guide to Massachusetts Snakes can be found at:

http://www.umass.edu/umext/snake/snakepit.html

Mara
Stitches, GAME99


>From: "Mara Factor" <m_factor@hotmail.com>
>Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2000 17:25:11 GMT
>
>OK, so maybe this wasn't the AT, but it was on a white blazed trail ...
>That makes it related, right?
>
>I was hiking in the Middlesex Fells Reservation, about five miles north of
>Boston yesterday, when I stepped over a snake stretched clear across the
>path.  It was neither a Ribbon nor a Garter snake and my first reaction 
>said
>Eastern Timber Rattler.
>
>It had the same colors as the rattlesnakes I've seen but there were no
>apparent rattles and the coloring went all the way to the tail without any
>darkening like I've seen on rattlers.
>
>The base color was a grayish tan.  There were irregularly shaped rust
>colored spots spaced regularly down the middle of the back.  These spots
>were ringed with black.  It was easily 2.5' long and could easily have been
>over 3'.  It was a bit bigger in diameter than a Ribbon or Garter snake.
>
>As it slithered across the trail, some wind blew and rustled the leaves 
>near
>the snake.  It took up a defensive posture with the forward part of the 
>body
>and head raised off the ground but then kept going.
>
>This description sounds like some written descriptions of Corn snakes I've
>been able to find on the web but the pictures I've seen of corn snakes are
>much darker and more vibrant.
>
>Any other ideas?
>
>I'm really curious because I've never seen anything like this in the area.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Mara
>Stitches, GAME99
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