11:00 AM on a cool winter day, the sun is finally out and Blackie is anxious to bask.
At first Blackie as a yearling was no more approachable than any other southern black racer, Coluber constrictor priapus. I’d see him in the tortoise yard, try to approach, and the snake would dart into tall grasses and disappear. When first seen Blackie was well patterned as are most normally colored black racers. It was June when I first noticed him.

But being open to the sunlight the tortoise pen was a great place for a snake to thermoregulate and every couple of days Blackie would make an appearance and on every appearance I managed to frighten him.

Then for a period of about 2 weeks I didn’t see him and I thought, “darn-one of the resident red shouldered hawks had gotten him. But no. He had changed positions and was spending a much of the time when he wasn’t hunting brown anoles behind the tortoise house. We have lots of anoles in the yard so Blackie grew noticeably during that summer. By autumn Blackie was about 26 inches long and most of the dorsal blotches of its baby pattern (I’ve never caught it to actually ascertain its gender) were already suffused by the melanin that would soon obscure all.except chin and throat. These would remain white.

When the seasonable temperatures dropped Blackie disappeared again. Since I heated the tortoise house in cold weather I guessed that the little snake was somewhere near that source of warmth. But then during one of our warm winter spells I found a shed skin coming from a loose spot in our house wall into the tortoise yard. Blackie had found a spot safe from tortoise feet and now that I knew where to look, on warm winter days I would often see a loose coil of the snake’s body slightly below the lowest level of siding.

By mid February Blackie was out basking and feeding again. But now he was not skedaddling if I approached him slowly. By the end of that year Blackie was approaching or may have exceeded 36 inches in length by a bit and he was a jet satiny black.

I seemed to be finding a shed skin from Blackie every couple of weeks but he was less easily seen. Again I thought “oh oh—a hawk got him. But then I found him basking quietly in the greenhouse. I knew it was him because I was moving the black plastic on which he was lying before I saw him and his only response was a couple of flicks of the tongue. This morning, an 85F day, Blackie was back in the tortoise yard and then an hour later basking on the back porch. As he left to begin foraging he stretched completely across the 4 foot wide steps with a bit of tail drooping over one side. That measured out to 50”, about as big as southern black racers get. And when he left he crawled across my shoe. I guess he’s decided I’m harmless.

The black dot on both sides of each ventral scute are a surefire way to identify a Kirtland's snake.
just read a short poem by Taylor West about the little natricid known as the Kirtland’s snake, Clonophis kirtlandi.

In her poem, a mere 8 short lines, she referred to a food (slugs), habitat (burrows of mudbugs (crayfish)), crepuscular habits, and the ample supply of musk manufactured and spread by the snake when it is handled.

In other words, it was accurate wording to portray a wonderful and poorly known little (rarely more than 20” and often less than 18”) snake that calls the states of IL, IN, and OH home but that does extend its range a bit beyond the borders of those states.

I’ll take this opportunity to add a few sentences about Kirtland’s snake.

The habitat of the Kirtland’s snake is of a broader scope than just mudbug burrows. I have found them beneath discarded newspapers, paper bags, and cardboard in vacant lots in suburban neighborhoods, under debris in city parks, and under riverbank rocks. They have also been found in pastures and other grassy habitats, again most often beneath debris, and where they occur the ground is usually damp.

Besides slugs this little snake feeds readily on earthworms and one I was photographing disgorged a large leech.

The ground color of Kirtland’s snake may vary from gray to reddish brown and a lighter vertebral stripe is often present. Two alternating rows of black spots range along each side and the head is black with white lips and chin. The coral to terra cotta belly is lightest anteriorly and is bordered on each side by a row of small black spots.

This snake, once considered a water snake, is now protected throughout its range. And yes, like many (if not most) snakes, Kirtland’s snake is not at all reluctant to smear a handler with musk that is produced in glands just inside the cloaca.

Thanx for that poem, Taylor.