Let's see who gets it first.

This little guy was underneath a gas can I picked up this afternoon.

About 8" long and about as big around as a pencil.

This is a 'juvenile' but it's markings won't change much at maturity.

Common snake, you guys should get this one pretty fast.



Edit to add: Deep East Texas

Similar to some Texas Brown snakes we have around Inez.

Corn snake?

Texas brown snake.

It's a Brown Snake but I don't believe this one to be a Texas Brown.

You might also have what I think this subspecies is in your area (you are a bit West of me about 40 miles).

Keep going guys.

OK, another hint.

Had a cream colored belly, not red.

Also no 'slash mark' behind the eye (rules out another subspecies).

Every Texas Brown Snake I've ever picked up had a cream or white colored belly.

Yes, not suggesting the Texas Brown has a red belly, but there is a Red Bellied Brown Snake (in parts of East Texas) that does, just ruling that out for you, also ruling out the Marsh Brown...similarly marked and colored to this snake, but has a horizontal dark line just behind the eye, which this one lacked. Should have taken more pics for everyone to look at, but this snake was small and delicate and did not like being handled.

I believe this particular snake is a DeKay's Brown (very subtle difference from the Texas Brown...a subspecies).

Couple of pics of a DeKays and Marsh Brown below....showing how similar those two appear at first view.




But 'Brown Snake' is the winner...so Ringtail hit it first.

Beautiful snake. What did I win?

Coachwhip????

A few weeks ago my son had a nice looking coachwhip right on his front porch over here in Victoria county.

new to me

I was thinking Texas brown

I was out mowing pasture yesterday and noticed a black head sticking up above the grass in a course I just mowed. As I got closer I could see that the snake was not out on the ground but sticking it's head up out of a hole in the ground. It would pop it's head up and look around each time I got near the hole it was in. I guess the vibration alarmed it or made it curious.

It looked to be a Coachwhip and when I was finished mowing I went back and drove a stake in the ground near the mouth of the hole. I am going to watch that spot to see if it comes out and might be caught. Possibly a female with a den of eggs (or at least hoping so). Right time of the year for it. Thinking about putting a game camera at the entrance of the hole but I don't know if the slow movement of a snake would trigger the camera or not.

In late march my son was lifting weights on the driveway when he heard a squirrel screaming about 30 feet up in a large oak by the house. There was a large Texas rat snake trying to get the baby squirrels in a nest and mom was having none of it. The snake then fell about 30 feet to the ground and my son thought it might be dead as it was stunned. He called me over and about that time the snake came back "alive". I messed with it a little and he was the most aggressive rat snake I have seen as he came at me and I had to back up five or six feet as he tried his best to bite me, ha ha!

Well....in fairness, I'd probably have a bad attitude too, just having fell 30' from a tree, coming to from being unconscious...only to have someone start messing with me.


Good photo.

Copperheadedrattlemoccasin jumping mamba! They all are deadly, when I find them under things I'm moving!!!

and shooting! I've seen people's reaction to a black mamba in a little orphanage in Zambia. The whole place came alive. 'Poor guy was maybe 10", if he stretched. He/she was up in a tree. He didn't stand a chance. Who are we to question the actions of the poor that have to live with these creatures every day, in conditions we can't conceive of?

This is obviously a dirty underwear snake. That's what they leave me with when I get surprised like that.

Folks have very different feelings and reactions to snakes. I'm not in the least afraid of them...but I DO understand how others don't feel the same. I actually have that kind of reaction to spiders and can't offer a good explanation for it.

This snake was diminutive...so even less scary than some others might be. I didn't want to handle it for very long as it never really settled down and I was afraid it would injure itself with all the thrashing around it was doing trying to get free. I knew immediately it was a brown snake but wanted to look at both its underside and occipital blotches more closely as there are subspecies. This is a common snake on my property.

Again....I completely understand the fear that ANY snake can invoke in many folks. I don't feel that way about them...but as I said before, spiders (any spider) give me the heebie jeebies and I readily admit to over-reacting to them at times.

On out trip last month we saw several tarantulas....even brought a couple home....I love spiders almost as much as snakes....