Friday, January 15, 2016

Snake in the grass

Picture found online of the same snake
Mom was out doing her weekly garden clean up yesterday when thankfully she noticed this guy sunning himself by the fence. It is hard to see in the photos she took but he was two shades of grey with beautiful turquoise colored patterns down his sides. Thankfully he slithered off under the fence into our neighbors yard. After much researching online Mom finally found out it is a blue striped garter snake - non poisonous - they can grow to about 4 feet (this one was about 2 and half feet) and they eat earth worms, frogs, toads, small fish etc. They are commonly found in ditches, drainage areas and around ponds and of coarse we have a pond behind our house. Mom says he is quite welcome to feed on the frogs and toads in our pond as last spring/summer they drove us crazy with their noise although she would prefer he stayed OUTSIDE our fence :) When Mom looked at them online she noticed they vary hugely in the shades of grey and blue and even their patterns - one thing they all have in common is a blue underside - which this one also had. This is the second garter snake we have seen in our yard since we moved here and funnily enough - it was in exactly the same spot as the first one although the first one we saw was a brown and yellow garter snake.
Our little snake in the grass
Good thing Mom saw him :)

27 comments:

  1. Crikey ..... how beautiful is that bloke? I'm glad he slithered away though. Wouldn't want you two hurting him. Not that you would of course. I would.

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  2. wow... that's a giant snake... bet it can eat my mom.... that's probably the reason she ran screaming away.... hope she will not run into your garden snake hehehehe

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  3. He is pretty. Glad mom saw him before the dogs got ahold of him!

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  4. That creature is the one thing that would have sent me running in a panic!

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  5. Shivers to mergatroid. Snakes scare this little oinker. I don't mind looking in a picture but in person - squeals! We get them at times in our backyard and mom has to go out first on snake patrol before we go out - especially in the summer. XOXO - Bacon

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  6. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww we are not big fans of Snakes. Good that your mom saw him and that she stayed away from him... SOME snakes are MEAN...
    Since he was in the SAME place... maybe it was the SAME Snake.

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  7. That is a pretty snake. Did you know that birds will chase a snake and I guess that is because of their eggs. I saw a bird chase a snake one time. You are just the prettiest doggies. Take care.

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  8. A SNAKE!!!!!! Run!!!!!
    Loves and licky kisses
    Princess Leah xxx

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  9. A snake! We're so glad it was a non-poisenous one. There are no snakes in New Zealand but we've seen a few over in Australia and they always left me feeling a bit nervous :)

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  10. We have garter snakes here too. Last year we had a couple of really big ones live near the front door. Katie never noticed them but I sure did! We like them because they eat mice and we have lots of mice around here!

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  11. Well we picked Mom off the floor after she saw the pic. We constantly have to chase the garter snakes off. They scare Mom something fierce. Doesn't matter that the garters are harmless, nothing will convince her.

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  12. Garter snakes were very common in VA when SHE was growing up. There were loads of snakes, never bothered HER, but in OZ, SHE doesn't want to see ANY!

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  13. We would have run for the hills!
    Lily & Edward

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  14. Our mom would have screamed bloody murder. She hates snakes!

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  15. Mom would be screaming like crazy if she saw that snake. Thunder Dunder was our renowned snake hunter. He would find them and toss them in the air - freaked Mom out all the time.

    Woos - Ciara and Lightning

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  16. Snakes can be scary sometimes, but this ones pretty.

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  17. Our mom freaks over snakes! Well, not so much freaks as really doesn't care to be around them. Slap some feet on them and call them lizards or salamanders or whatever and she's just fine. She's kind of crazy.
    Yours sincerely,
    Margaret Thatcher

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  18. Me and Nellie are very happy that there are not snakes living in New Zealand. Mummy says We would not like to play with them because they might bite us.

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  19. We found a garter snake in the loading dock at our old pharmacy once. Some people were so scared. But it was just a tiny snake that couldn't harm anyone. We wish now we had taken a picture of it before letting it go in the woods.

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  20. Eeeeeekkkkkk!!!!

    Thats all I have to say....I hate snakes!

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  21. we get a snake now and then but not a pretty as that one
    hugs
    Mr Bailey, Hazel & Mabel

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  22. He's pretty! But it's a good thing he didn't find OUR yard. Dad doesn't like snakes very much.

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  23. Yikes a snake! Mommy would have had to zoom like 87 yards on the camera to take a picture of the snake. She would no way get too close to a snake.

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  24. Hi hi hi! Ojo here! Wow, what a nice looking snake? Did you play with it?

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  25. I am definitely NOT a fan of snakes of any kind. I wish that I could be more understanding of them, but they scare the beejeebees out of me. I'm glad that your mom say it before you boys did. We have so many poisonous snakes in our area that I don't take the time to ask questions.Too many dogs have been bitten by snakes and I can't take the risk.

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  26. I think he's a beautiful snake! They do scare me when they surprise me outdoors but I can admire photos of them!

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  27. That is a pretty snake! We don't see many snakes here...it stays too cold for them to come out and play!
    Smileys!
    Dory, Jakey, Arty & Bilbo

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Thank you for woofing at us - we read each and every one of them