I don’t know how Samuel L. Jackson would feel about it, but most of us here love snakes. Especially King Snakes. Louis found this guy up by the top of our man-made Lake Charles Falls. Normally, we don’t disturb the wildlife, but our friend here wasn’t living up to his potential in the woods. He’s needed down in the pasture which is being overrun with gophers and moles. Good thing gophers and moles is his business!
The King Snake looks ferocious. And he is if you are a rodent. He’ll crush the life out of you and have you for lunch. But for those of us of the human or terrier persuasion, he’s harmless. In fact, he is not a rattlesnake. He just plays one on the ground. He’ll mimic a rattlesnake’s defensive postures and even shake his [rattleless] tail. If he’s sitting in dry grass, the rustle just might fool you. But his main defense is limited to urinating on you with a somewhat foul-tasting liquid to discourage you from consuming him.
His markings were beautiful and he felt smooth and cool.
But as I said, the King Snake is a voracious consumer of pests, including the aforementioned gophers and moles, and up to and including rattlesnakes! So far, the rattlesnakes have been behaving themselves, so I have no beef with them. Especially as they consume rodent critters as well. But it’s nice to have a King Snake on your side.
As I said, this guy wasn’t living up to his potential up in the woods. So we took him down to the Goat Rocks in the pasture, where we hope he’ll find a Smörgåsbord of tasty rodents.
John the Baptist demonstrates that our snake is a good sized boy who should have a lot of rodent eating in his future.
And, of course, a fellow this important deserves a name. All the key animals at Two Terrier Vineyards are named. There’s really only one name for a Crawlin’ King Snake, isn’t there? Gotta call him after the man who wrote the song, the great blues man John Lee Hooker.
So meet Hooker the King Snake. And here to sing him out is Muddy Waters, since I couldn’t find a live John Lee Hooker version on YouTube. Sing it, Muddy! Go get’em, Hooker.
You know you caught me crawlin’ baby,
When the grass was very high
I’m just gonna keep on crawlin’ now baby until the day I die,
‘Cause I’m a crawlin’ kingsnake baby, and I rules my den
I’m glad they are good for your fields but I wouldn’t want to be surprised by one
I wander in and out of your blog via Linda’s blog at 7MSN.
Had to comment today. I love that their are other folks that move snakes instead of killing them. We just had our first snake of the season in the chicken coop–Texas Rat snake. I moved her about a mile away. They love that eggs don’t try to run away or bite them when they go in for the kill.
My mother stopped a car to let a black racer cross the road, not because she liked snakes. She was petrified that it would get wrapped around the axle!! She would become physically ill when they were shown on tv for pete’s sake.
Hard raising to overcome. I appreciate their role. One of my friends who rented a country house many years ago released a big black snake under his house to keep rodents away. He was surrounded by corn fields. Had a spring-fed cistern. Good environment for non-venomous snakes. One of my favorite pieces of snake knowledge is knowing that black snakes are immune to copperhead venom. Natural enemies. I spent most of my childhood in copperhead country.
I don’t like to come upon them unexpectedly either, but glad you like them. Got used to seeing occasional garter variety visitors when I lived near a small woods and had an ivy covered hillside. Felt like a victory living with the world around us. No problem, you and I can both hang out around here.
The king snake is quite handsome for a serpent.
I’m not usually a huge snake fan, but I’m liking this guy. He was very gentlemanly about being manhandled by John the Baptist and having his picture taken. And again, if he eats moles, he’s a keeper.
Beautiful kingsnake! And, I love the name. Going to go listen to some John Lee now. Thanks for relocating him, not killing him.
As a volunteer docent, I have frequently worked with snakes. The number of people who seem surprised that a silver haired librarian actually is holding a snake — A SNAKE – hopefully left with the idea that reptiles are not necessarily harmful.