Field Herping... in our backyard...

[anatess]

I finally got close enough to take a picture of our backyard snake - and he is fairly good-sized now! He lives somewhere in our side-bushes. I thought it was a racer snake but now, looking at this, you will notice the red splashes on the bottom part of his body. I'm thinking this might be an indigo since our backyard backs up to a lake. What do you think?

Sorry for the blurry image but the snake was moving and I only had my cellphone camera!

[Michelle.C]

Looks like a Nerodia subspecies; a very pretty one at that. A better picture and your location would help identify the animal.

[DutchHerp]

I second a Nerodia

[btrout56]

3x I also think nerodia....Definately not an Indigo....Very awesome looking snake at than and looks very healthy too....lol...

[anatess]

Oh sorry... I live in Jacksonville - Northeast Florida. He's hiding again... When I see him again, I'll see if I can get the hubby to pick him up for a much better pic.

Nerodia... like a brown water snake. I'm not sure about that - he is really smoky black with red flares and didn't look like he was keeled. The brown water snake are usually dark brown and keeled. He did jump straight into my fish pond when I tried to chase him with the camera. And, the fish pond used to have fish and turtles and then one day, they were all gone. I tried to blame a heron but now I'm thinking, that snake is pretty hefty, he's probably feeding off my fish pond too!

[Michelle.C]

Water Snakes aren't just brown, ugly snakes. You'd be quite surprised how lovely they can be.

I'm thinking he is probably Nerodia fasciata. In your area you have 5-6 Nerodia subspecies though. I'm around 99.8% sure it's a Nerodia. After all, they are the first snakes I kept and what ultimately got me into keeping snakes. Then again, it might be something else, I doubt it though.

They are an extremely interesting species to observe (in the wild and captivity) and their diet is extremely varied; anything from fish, birds, rodents, frogs, lizards, crawfish, etc. is fair game.

[llovelace]

He's a southern banded water snake, non venomous

[Michelle.C]

He's a southern banded water snake, non venomous

I figured he was a Nerodia fasciata (Southern Banded). Thanks for the confirmation though! I haven't actually seen one in the wild (Nerodia fasciata), but I was pretty sure on the subspecies.

[anatess]

Yep! This looks like him alright:

http://www.cryptomundo.com/wp-conten...watersnake.jpg

Southern banded water snake.

Found that pic off of google. I read up on it and it says people keep them as pets too. Hmmm... Maybe I can move him from my yard to a vivarium... It did say they tend to start out aggressive and musk for defense. Don't want the kids to accidentally step on the d00de. Oh, and they're proliferate bearing live young of about 40 at a time! Although, I've only seen this guy so far. He might have a girlfriend, dunno. Never saw a bunch of juvies in my yard though. Maybe I should just have him moved to the other side of the lake.

[Michelle.C]

Found that pic off of google. I read up on it and it says people keep them as pets too. Hmmm... Maybe I can move him from my yard to a vivarium... It did say they tend to start out aggressive and musk for defense. Don't want the kids to accidentally step on the d00de. Oh, and they're proliferate bearing live young of about 40 at a time! Although, I've only seen this guy so far. He might have a girlfriend, dunno. Never saw a bunch of juvies in my yard though. Maybe I should just have him moved to the other side of the lake.

Hard to visually sex, but here is just a little guess, your little "dude" is probably a chick. In the nerodia world, chicks are fat and large and dudes are little and skinny.

"Tend to start out aggressive" doesn't cover it. Wild Caught animals are born evil and stay evil. The musk will chase you out of the house.