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Home My WebLink AboutAugust 05, 2004 - The snakes of summer The Suffolk Times • August 5, 2004 They re not as scar as the look � y r�� r��'rpmi�Y4�yi Gq/�l �r�� y �� "� � i,�l�ul�"�Id , , . �' �!„ � ti :lr�� '�� xtu,.i�i�l "� "'� u na;� � ' eulNh �um ,, „ , ,; .,�. , � � . 4 '��nn ,��i °N' l�'.��"�"'��w�� ., � �. w""-":':i�M„+� �� '��''�`;��,��'�� ;,� � ;� , �� ; � �,,�� ,��,�;;��'�: imes Review hoto b Debarah Kusa long,and on clos- �OCu$ er examination we determined it Onj DEsox�tt cai.LFD ME from East was a milk snake. NATURE Marion about a snake she had seen Milk snakes and was curious to know what kind it get their name by Paul was. I assumed from the description from an�old $tOUt@I1bU1'gh ni, ,+ that it was a hognose snake.The best wives'tale about ,� �" part of the conversation with her was snakes.These wives' tales run ram- -� �, that I found she had taken a �cture pant when people are ignorant of the i;��'' p facts.Years a o the believed that this ' '��" ''��`� of it What better way to be able to g y �� ,'�-�' � identiPy it.The photo showed a snake particular kind of snake went into the alm � dairy barns and took milk from the ,�� cows.When a cow was not producing � 4��,;�, �"'��„, they needed something to blame it on „�� - �� %%�� ; � � so this old wives' tale was born of ''' � ,�� , , ��"' � , � � Iv`. 1gIlOT111Ce.Of COUCSe tlleCO LS IIO tT'Utll � �,� �� ' "i'iunn'�`< �� i� ii � �i � t0 1 t. � i pl'4 i'll ��N�r � � �� i�ill/�ljl�ih t� nr � �� ''ln If they had thought it out a little ' ' � ��d,�, ��p�� ,� �pi ,, further,they would have realized that ,°�� "�� '+- '�� ° the milk snake had come to the barn ' �"�� '^"� � ,,,� . � because the barn housed mice and � � �� ' '�� '�'u'�"�/ ii�,�d ' �r,; � �'" rats,the favorite food of the milk � �'� �� , �, , � p%°�� ` �� ''� snake.And robabl ,as in so man ��% %��'� �� ' ��'�� ^� w, ;, � � �� P Y Y � ��r ��r,�l��,� iw� l�� " ��j�",„� OtI]CI"CdS�S,aS SOOTl AS Ylle SIlaICe 4rr�'r (4��"�� til�� rr �� b! u,�� , � � � '�N�'"��,��w�� l � � � � �� n�� r' r l��'��n��j�� r ti � p� y�� ' , ., ,. , �� '�/��'lhi �� nl'��1'�M�;,�� 'h"�pi'�x ��: , � ��i/ '�� , , � �u� @l�� , , I �N i �. . . � y�� il�n��Nuv ��l�k §�� : .' . �I'�nb ..� lmxmMw'—�.. .. . , r. Tim�s/Review photo by Paul Stoutenburgh ±` �°�.. ° Top left: The colorful garter snake. " � "� � �� ' , . ��._,,... �,:;�`� ; ;' : . ,. - � ;• ;� � ; Top right: The milk snake. °.4, . ` " ' " " ' Above: The hognose snake. , . . r , , . .. � , . . . , .,� . �.°� , , Tirnes/Revicw photo by Paul SYoutenburgh It's a fascinating little snake.It I doesn't grow as big as a milk snake, showed up,it was killed.We used to two feet maybe.It lives on toads, get quite a few calls about snakes,but, mainly the young ones,and gets its sorry to say,this is the first call about name"hognose"from its upturned a snake this year. nose,something like that of a hog. Snakes are having a difficult-time in Another name for this hognose man's world of whirling lawnmowers, snake is"puff.adder,"because when speeding cars and change of habitat cornered,it will coil itself up and flat- from a natural one to an artificial one. ten its head out just like the charac- reral cats that roam our woods take teristic cobra pose.If that doesn't � their toll also. scare the aggressor away,it will roll ! The milk snake is quite handsome. over,open its mouth,let its tongue sna es ave isappeared. It is sort of an overall gray color with hang out and play dead.The only Probably our best-known snake is � a series of large chestnut brown or trouble with that is if you pick the our common garter snake,black col- <�live brown saddles or blotches along snake up and turn it over,it immedi- ared with yellow stripes running 1 its back.It's classified as a constrictor, ately turns back to the position of down its length.There are many vari- D, n�caning once it hunts down its prey, playing dead,which is a giveaway that ations to this color scheme.The last which is usually a shrew,a mouse or a it is not dead at all.Sometimes thesc time I remember seeing a garter small rat,it coils around it tightly,pre- defense maneuvers work,and somc;- �nake was when we met with a lady venting it from breathing and there- times they don't.For a hungry fox e�r ��n Sound Avenue in Southold who fore suffocating it.Once dead,it is determined hawk,I guess it all ��i� a cluster of these harmless snakes swallowed whole.Snakes have an depends on how good the snake is at �n �l hush.Evidently they were in a unusually flexible jaw mechanism that playing the game. ating frenzy,as every enables them to swallow objects sev- Another beautiful snake male garter snake in the eral times their own diameter. is the black snake,which is �f you see a area must have caught the The female milk snake deposits her even harder to find today. Colorful milk female scent in the air and elongated eggs in soft ground and lets The pine barrens again is a snake in homed in on the bush,try- the sun and summer warmth bring place you can still find ing to be the first to make ' your eellar it to the lad fair.The them forth in the fall.These eggs,by them.Shelter Island's Y the way,have a sort of leathery shell, Mashomack Preserve is or garage, garter snake gives birth to another lace ou'll find � large fami�ies of live young and as the embryos grow,the shell p y please don t that feed on earthworms actuall len thens to accommodate them.But the best place is y � on Gardiners Island,where k�� • until they are older,when them.If you happen to see one of the feed on fro s and these quite colorful snakes in your I've seen them often and Y g lease dodt even have a photograph of a pair toa s and insects. cellar or in your garage,p One thin we should remernber kill it,for we have ver few snakes mating. about snakes is that the all iven a left.Let's drown that ugly saying t at My first encounter with a black Y �g snake was when I was a kid and I was chance,will slither away from you. "the only good snake is a dead scared half to death b seein this bi None will aggressively attack you.It's snake,"remembering that the saying snake.Then to to it off,I heard a g only when they're cornered and came from past ignorance and that p there's no wa to esca e that the tr today we live in a much wiser world. rattling noise,which I thought imme- Y P Y Y diatel meant it was a rattlesnake. to defend themselves. Let's go to another snake,the hog- �at kid never ran so fast! I later One last snake I will mention is thc nose.I remember seeing these snakes �earned that many snakes when nery water snake,which lives in the ponci� in the pine barrens.They seem to and alon the ed es of the Peconic en o the sand areas of these vast ous wiggle their tails when an adver- g g � y y sar a roaches.This articular River.This can be kind of an ornery stretches of sandy soil.We have some y pp p snake,so I'd sta clear of it.A ain, of the same soil conditions along the nake must llave been hitting a littic Y g wi that echoed and made it sound hc's not poisonous,but he might givc Sound,where we find these snakes as �us�like a rattle.Since those early you a nip if cornered.So leave the `�'�� lays when snakes were common,I water snakes alone and remember havcn't seen many black snakes. that they,too,are playing a part in thc Again,man has moved in and most scheme of things. I