Juvenile Common Bird Snakes are strongly patterned and highly arboreal.
A common snake in Amazonian Peru, the actual range of this feisty snake is from Mexico through most of northern South America. Both the genus and the species/subspecies names for this snake are currently in flux. Some refer to it as Pseustes poecilonotus, some as Phrynonax polylepis, and others simply refer to it, as I have, as the Common Bird Snake. At the moment I’ll also use the long-standing name of Pseustes poecilonotus for its scientific designation. The snake simply doesn’t care what you call it but is apt to display resentment if you approach it too closely.

We have found many of these snakes, but have never yet found one that was happy to see us. Neck distention, similar to that of the better known Spilotes, is a defensive ploy that may be used before, during, or after the snake has struck at you. Bird snakes are nonvenomous. Juveniles are strongly patterned and quite arboreal often being found at face level or above in trailside trees. Adults are more often found resting at night while coiled atop fallen trunks or simply on the trail.

The common name comes, of course, from this snake’s fondness for birds and their eggs. Small mammals, lizards, frogs, and insects are also eaten.

Coastal eastern Black Rat Snakes are often jet black dorsally.
Long in the herpetocultural shadows of more brightly colored rat snakes, it now seems that much interest is being channeled to the big Black Rat Snake, Pantherophis obsoletus obsoletus. Although I’m surely missing some, genetic aberrancies such as white-sided, albino, lavender, rusty, brindle, and calico, have been developed. But let’s talk about the normal rather than the aberrances here.

The Black Rat Snake, a big dark colored constrictor, has an immense range in eastern USA. Using state abbreviations, it may be found from New England’s Lake Champlain to neGA, then seMN to cKS and cLA. Habitats include stone walls, woodlands, pasture edges, deserted buildings and other such structures.

It, like its several subspecies, is adult at 5 to 6 feet in length. Occasional examples have exceeded 8 feet in length. With a record length of 101 inches it is one of the 5 longest snakes in the USA.

When adult this is a large, primarily black, harmless, but often feisty, semi-arboreal snake. Black above, traces of darker blotches may be seen, and if the snake is a hatchling/juvenile, or distended with a meal or gravid. Patches of white, gray, or orange interstitial skin (the skin between the scales) may also show. Dorsal patterns are also more apt to be seen where this snake nears the ranges of the Gray Rat Snake and Texas Rat Snake. The belly is white with irregular blotches of black.

Typically hatchlings are gray with black saddles. Various colors, especially a dark olive green, may show at areas where this snake intergrades with the yellow rat snake. Rodents, birds, and lizards are the preferred prey items of this powerful constrictor.

Rat snakes, as a group, will hiss if frightened and will often vibrate the tail. This latter, if in dried grass or leaves, will make a whirring sound that is similar to the noise of a rattlesnake’s rattle.

Know the difference before you approach.

This terrestrial snake is easily differentiated form its rough-scaled cousin by the lack of keels on the scales.
I know I’ve talked earlier about this little snake, but I would like now to bring to the forefront the fact that the Smooth Green Snake, Opheodrys vernalis, is in trouble.

Dorsally, this small (adult at 15 to 24 inches), smooth scaled, slender, and beautiful snake is leaf green (grayish or yellowish in some small populations and duller immediately after hatching, immediately before shedding or after death when it is bluish). Ventrally it is yellow, white, or pale green belly. It is predominantly terrestrial and was once common to abundant in open grassy areas such as unkempt urban fields, meadows, pastures, and edge habitats. An oviparous species, eggs have a curiously shortened incubation period, hatching in from 4 to 24 days. Hatchlings are duller than adults.

In the east this is a snake of habitats that vary from coastal and other lowlands to montane meadows. The few western populations are found at high elevations. Overall, this snake is considered a boreal species. The northernmost populations are found in Canada’s Maritime Provinces westward to southern Saskatchewan. The southernmost populations were in nw Virginia and s Illinois. Westward of this unusual range there are 25 or 30 small disjunct populations known as far as e WY, ne UT, and the grasslands of e TX (this latter now thought to be extirpated). A population has even been documented in w Chihuahua, MX.

For reasons that have not yet risen above the speculative stage, entire populations of the smooth green snake have now disappeared, and in those now existing, the snake is becoming increasingly rare. With no smooth green snakes having been found in TX in recent years, this population is of special interest. It is wondered by some researchers whether those once found in TX might have been introduced rather than of natural occurrence.

So, why the overall smooth green snake reductions? Is it because of habitat modifications? Probably not. There are still a lot of grasslands, some very remote, throughout this snake’s one-time range.

Could it be dietary. Afterall, this is an insectivorous species, crickets, caterpillars, and an occasional spider being among its favorite prey items. The prevalent use of a wide variety of insecticides has reduced insect populations, this snake’s potential prey.

Is it due to toxic effect from the insecticides themselves? Possibly.

Whichever and whatever it is a problem that we must soon get a handle on lest there be no smooth green snakes left to concern ourselves with.

This adult Rusty Whipsnake was a bit over 7 feet in length.
The neotropical genus Chironius contains about 20 species of slender serpents that are often referred to as “Neotropical whipsnakes.” Although some fully grown at 4 to 5 feet in length, a few species routinely exceed 6 feet when adult. Despite their large size, their whiplike slenderness allows these snakes to be arboreal and they may as often be seen sprawled on the fronds in the crown of a palm tree as in shrubs nearer ground level. Not only the preferred habitats of some, such as the Rusty Whipsnake, C. scurrulus, may change with the growth of the snake, but the overall appearance of the snake changes also.

Reversing ontogenesis from what we have become used to on the emerald tree boa, this snake, the Amazonian Rusty Whipsnake, often found at river edge, is an intense emerald green as an arboreal hatchling. The intensity of the green fades rapidly with the snake’s age and growth. As a semiaquatic adult, the Rusty Whipsnake becomes a beautiful rusty red and is often seen foraging for its prey of frogs at water’s edge.

As indicated above, this is an oviparous species.

In keeping with the above comments, the bright green hatchling fell from the forest canopy during a storm. The paler green juvie was found on a vine covered log, and the red adult was searching for prey on the banks of the Rio Orosa, all so very typical. Enjoy.

Pine Woods Treefrogs often call in huge numbers from terrestrial locations.
Last nite (06 Aug 2020) was a 1 snake (cottonmouth) aor and 1 snake (same species) DOR kind of night. Storms had been forecast for earlier in the day but, as usual, they arrived late. I had motored about 65 miles northward hoping for a warm temperature and dry road. By the time I had arrived at the destination a rainy dusk had enveloped the region and temperatures had plummeted from the 80s to the low 70s. I knew by that time that I had been lucky to see even that single cottonmouth. Rain fell, then fell harder, then harder still. The world—or at least my little part of it-- appeared awash. But it soon became apparent that this was just what the anurans, the hylids and the microhylids, had been waiting for. There was no lead in to the anuran chorus. One minute the region was silent, and of a sudden, frog voices echoed from mile after mile of newly refreshed roadside ditches. The choruses were astounding.

Pine Woods tree frogs were by far the most numerous. Hunkered down in the grasses their Morse Code cadences were deafening in some flatland areas. They were followed next by the honks and churrs of green and squirrel treefrogs. A fair sized chorus of Cope’s gray treefrogs was heard back near a forest stream, and bronze and pig frogs were plunking and grunting from Impassible Bay. Only a single barking treefrog was seen, it sitting quietly on the road. Cricket frogs called in fair numbers from various flooded locales.I estimated the calling anurans in the thousands. No way to guess at the non-vocalizing females. Interestingly, I saw zero bufonids of either species or either sex.

Friend and researcher Dr. Sam Sweet’s comment when I told him about the experience was “You hit the storms just right! I went SW and everything cleared up by dark -- one small ribbon snake, a baby N. fasciata and about 10 leopard frogs on 55 miles of road.” Sam’s ending comment, “Floriduh!”

Nose to nose with a California Giant Salamander.
California has it all. Well almost all. Except for what they don’t have. But if its caudatan diversity you’re interested in, California is definitely a state you should consider visiting. Newts, Lunged salamanders and Lungless salamanders all may be found there. Some are colorful, some are drab. Some are tiny, some are comparatively large. All are interesting.

One of the groups that I find of great interest are the Giant Salamanders of the genus Dicamptodon (family Dicamptodontidae). Of the 4 species 2 dwell in California’s cool, moist forestlands. These are The California and the Pacific Giant Salamanders, D. ensatus and D. tenebrosus, respectively. Both are hefty, and both top out at just about a foot in length, with tenebrosus perhaps being a bit more slender, a tiny bit shorter, having a proportionately smaller head and shorter limbs. This latter is also a bit darker in color. The former, the California Giant, is the southernmore of the 2, ranging southward in the Coast Range from southern Mendocino County to western Glenn County. The Pacific Giant ranges northward from Glenn County to southwest British Columbia, Canada.

Populations of both of these big nocturnal salamanders are adversely affected by foresting practices that leave stream banks unprotected, subject to drying, and the streams themselves subject to warming. Although both of these salamanders are variably colored, neither is brightly colored. Ground color of both is tan to light brown with well-defined reticulations and spots of reddish brown to dark brown. They breed in streams and creeks and the aquatic larvae may take several years to metamorphose.

Prey includes invertebrates such as worms and slugs as well as vertebrate prey such as smaller salamanders.