As you may know, my girlfriend absolutely loves snakes. She's forever out hunting for them so that she can catch them and take pictures of them, etc. And she always brings me along as well.
I, on the other hand, am fairly ambivalent about snakes. I don't hate them enough that I must kill one every time I see it. However, I do fear them. My fears aren't grounded in any sort of reality. It's just that I grew up not being exposed to them terribly often. Lis has helped me get over my fears and I now know that snakes aren't going to kill me unless I am in Texas and very, very unlucky. :-P
So this afternoon, I'm out watering my plants and talking to Lis on the phone in the blistering heat (it's 88 today) and I see a flash of movement. It turns out that I had a garter snake in my garden and he didn't appreciate being watered too much.
I chased down and caught my first snake today!
After I caught him, I wanted to get pictures of him. But I didn't want to bring him into the house (Pixel would go ballistic). So I brought him into the garage and put him in an empty garbage can so that I could run inside and get my digital camera. For reference, the radius of the trash can is 12 inches (so that would make the snake about 14-16 inches long, roughly).
After I nabbed the camera, I wanted to get a few more shots of him. So I got one close up so you could really see the markings on him. And then I put him down in the driveway and got a few action photos. Finally, I herded him back into the grass and got my last shot.
So that's my adventure for the day. I'm sure Lis can tell you more about what kind of snake he is (I know he's a garter snake) and the cool factoids about him. Me? I'm just happy I caught him without screaming like a little girl. :-P
Up here in Manitoba (Canada), we have the Narcisse pits, which are home to THOUSANDS of them :P
I haven't been there yet (don't like snakes!), but apparently you will see them in huge numbers such that they can completely cover the ground.
There's even a Wikipedia entry for the pits here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcisse_Snake_Pits
I had friends that had corn snakes and ball pythons. I much prefer the pythons to the corn snakes fear-factor-wise. But I still became uneasy when the pythons would stare at me while I was holding them. Boas on the other hand are silky smooth. :D
As far as snakes in the wild go... no thanks. O:)
You are so awesome Aaron! I'm so proud of you, I'm telling everyone I know. As for the snake, it's one of the most common ones in the country and it likes to live in moist vegetation where it can catch frogs, toads and earthworms. I guess that's why you found it in your garden. I'd love to see them emerging from their communal dens, I've heard a lot about it. They have some interesting mating behaviors too.
I didn't used to be afraid of snakes, but I am a little now. I don't mind being near them, but I can't seem to pick them up anymore. We have garter snakes and green grass snakes here. A few years ago there was this little garter snake (maybe around 10 inches long and very skinny) in the yard, and I tried to pick it up. I think I scared it too much, though, because when I reached down it jumped up and bit me! Yes, garter snakes have fangs like poisonous snakes, and no, they are not poisonous. Its fangs were so small and sharp that I couldn't feel them at all, but I had a snake hanging off my hand! I kinda yelled and waved my arm around, and the snake fell off and slithered away. I've never picked up a snake since.