Snake Encounter.

[Junebug]

While working in the back yard today I ran upon 2 pieces of recently shed snake skin. Each piece was about 12" long. Both pieces appeared to have come from the mid section of the same snake because they were uniform in size and there was no tapering at the ends. They were situated just a short distance from each other and as I glanced at them I made a mental note to be on the lookout for the snake that shed them.

After finishing up the yard work I began tinkering with the idea of repotting some chids and succulents, so I went to the side of my house to fetch some clean flower pots from my shelving rack. My pots are stacked and nested with the largest ones on the bottom. I needed a 7" one that was located second down from the top of the stack. As I was lifting up the top pot I was startled when I saw movement beneath it. My knee jerk reaction was immediately letting the top pot drop 3" back into the nesting position. After doing so I peered between the pots to see what was down there and I was relieved to see that it was just a beautiful, harmless corn snake. The poor thing was meerly seeking solitude. I decided to go get the camera and give him a few minutes to recover from having his senses knocked out by the flower pot.

When I came back I slowly and carefully removed the whole stack of pots as one unit and sat them on the ground. Then I gently lifted the top pot to see if Mr. Snake was o.k. He seemed fine and he was surprisingly tolerant when I began taking photos. Afterwards I returned the stack of pots to the shelf complete with Mr. Snake inside. He responded by slithering through the bottom hole of the pot to the next privacy level (between the next 2 lower pots) of his terracotta condo.

Initially I thought that the snake skins I'd seen earlier were courtesy of Mr. Snake, but now I think the sheds were from an entirely different snake. It appears that Mr. Snake hasn't begun shedding his skin yet, because he has milky dull patches on areas along his body, on the top of his head, and over his eyes.