Speckled king king snake

So I found one in my yard. Idled by the fence while I was weed wackin. I know they are not venemous. Should I leave him be or relocate him. It's only a baby as it is less than 20 inches long. My wife will shit a brick if she sees it

any snake that is not poisonous should be allowed to live, and possibly just relocated.

depends on where you live. If it gets a reprieve from the shovel in your yard will your neighbors or their dogs give it a pass? Many people can tell the difference between a Droid and Blackberry smarthone at a glance but when they see a snake it's SNAKE!!

Absolutely do not kill it, relocate or just leave it depending on where you live.

Came across a bunch (4) copperheads in a 100 yard stretch of concrete path while I was out running last night. Stopped and messed with one of them...

http://youtu.be/0fKImVoGA7w?t=1m40s

It was just sitting there in a strike position and would not move till I got the business end of the stick out. The little camera I carry is about the size of a Blackberry and shoots in 60 frames per second 1080p. The strike was so fast that the camera did not really even pick it up. Rather than bite the end of the stick, it went up the stick about 18 inches to bite. Which would be above a boot if that was a leg. Copperheads are fast little boogers. It was not till just now watching the video that I saw how the snake tensed up, breathed differently and changed it's mannerisms as I walked around looking for a stick. As I got closer, it made itself look larger I guess.

I saw a clip of a king snake killing and eating a rattlesnake it's own size. The rattler was laying on a rock and when the kingsnake appeared the rattler streched out lengthwise to either appear bigger or as the commentator said, to try and pass itself off as a stick. It didn't work. The king snake crawled over it while the rattlesnake was as stiff as a stick and then started sniffing or tasting it until finally the rattler twitched and then in a blur too fast to see it was game over. It showed different phases of the king snake swallowing the rattler until it's tail dissappeared, like tube sock stretching over a pipe.

Rural or neighborhood?

Rural, leave it be.

Neighborhood, relocate it. One of your neighbors will kill it because it's a rattlesnake

thats pretty cool, I just watched your video and read the caption underneath. They wont outpace my ass when im running away!

Also, im really curious to know what kind of blackberry sized camera that you have that does 1080p at 60fps?

A Kodak ZX5. It's waterproof to 10 feet and has an attachment in the bottom to screw it into any standard tripod mount. I think the threading for it is 1/4 inch bolt, I need to check on that. I have some redneck engineering plans for it. I stuck it in a spring that feeds into the Guadalupe over Easter when I was visiting my parents. Stuck it in the water and just let her run. Walmart was selling them for $50 about 6 weeks ago, the price is now north of $100. If it gets back to $50, you should buy one. I turn mine on and just let it run, come back later to check on it. Cheap enough so that if it walks away(someone steals it) or water gets inside, I won't cry about it.

That copperhead btw, is still alive and happy I guess. They must be in a migration mode or something right now. If I was camping, that snake would be dead meat. Since it was just a random occurence, I let it go.

Anyone ever use that CCI rat shot in a 9mm or other pistol? Do places like Academy carry it?

Ben, we were looking forward to joining you to search our feral hogs, but if you're going to stop and play/mess with snakes of any kind, then I will have to pass!

a buddy has recently encountered a bunch of copperheads on his property, so he plans to buy a dozen kingsnakes to take care of them...

Exactly, only native species that will eat venomous. Leave it be

I am one of the worst "KILL IT WITH FIRE" snake guys there is.

Even I will let a king snake live. Only because they eat other snakes.

Well, funny you would mention pigs. A guy I know, the same guy who setup cameras in North Dallas looking for pigs has moved his cameras to the Trinity. So far, a handful of pigs, coyotes etc.

This pig was photographed last Thursday night/Friday morning. Couple others are just out of view in this sequence.



Bigger fish to fry though. Sunday evening I was down there around the Loop 12 Boat Ramp nosing around and found a submerged vehicle downstream of the boat ramp about 150 yards





Someone probably drove it off the boat ramp. No telling when but it would have to be sometime since November. Water was high all winter and just now dropped enough to expose the tires. I have no idea what kind of vehicle car/truck it might be. I shot off an email to DPD this morning letting them know where it was I got an email back right away saying they would check into it. This afternoon a detective called back and said he went to the river to check it out. He said the dive team is out training at the moment but they were going to try and recover the vehicle. I was like, whoa, no way. But they're gonna try, It would have to involve an 18 wheeler wrecker, a bunch of winch cable and luck. The detective said he talked to the dive team and the divers thought the vehicle was tangled up in those tree trunks. They said the water mid-channel is 21 feet deep there. The vehicle is just hung up in the trees and once freed could deep six to the bottom. Add in a pretty good current and someone has their work cut out for them. Couple more good rains and that car might be Houston's problem. I'd just leave it but I guess they have to try and move it.

Getting back to the pigs, that detective asked, if there were any pigs around because he saw tracks everywhere. Yep!

Hopefully it's just a stolen car and not a case where someone was disoriented, took the exit off Loop 12 and right into the river. Most stolen cars I have seen down there get viking funerals, fire plus dumping. This one looks unburned. I really hope someone is not inside.

Keep us posted! Also, where do you run at?

The copperhead in question was at Walnut Hill Lane where it crosses White Rock Creek about 1/2 mile west of Presbyterian Hospital.

I sort of run all over the place right now. I have been "over doing it" a little bit too much with my mountain biking of late, around 400 miles a week, so I cut that in half down to 200 and now run trails on the days I don't ride. I kind of got to the point where I was riding so much that my fitness level began to go down and my "top-end" speed started to disappear. I hate running. Just cannot get into the zone.

Not a fan of running on concrete so I try and run on dirt trails not regularly frequented by mountain bikes. The trail network in Harry Moss Park at Arborside and Royal is pretty good for that since I can usually mash together other trails to get me down to White Rock Lake or run the defunct railroad tracks down to Mockingbird @ US75 from there. I have started getting in the habit of carrying along my Camelbak MULE with a full load of gear that I'd usually carry mountain biking on the Trinity. Takes some getting used to.

Wonder what a mountain bike tire would do to a copperhead?

Probably piss it off.

No probably, yes, it does. Ran over one on a trail I couldn't avoid. It struck at the rider behind me.

Maybe it needed more cow bell brake.

Yep. Probably nothing. I don't know anyone that had a snake bite their tire and puncture it. Snakes usually aim for the wrong spot and strike at the spokes. I use kevlar tires which take the place of steel in the tires. Does not add any bulletproofness or toughness. Just makes them lighter. Really only see snakes this time of year around sunrise or sunset. No clue where they are going or what they are doing other than moving around a bunch. Especially copperheads. Those little bastards move all over the place.

I have had people swear they have run over big rattlers stretched out on the road in a car or truck, literally feeling like they have run over a garden hose, only to look in the rear view mirror and see it crawling off or gone. I've tried that trick myself with low returns. I was told that a snake has the ability to swell or blow up and actually take the load but a more realistic reason is they are so quick they avoid the tires at the last second.

we often trail run at Arbor Hills park in Plano, but that's a little out of your usual stomping grounds

we've twice spotted a mountain lion at that park

If you see a snake on the road, slam on your brakes as you run over it. I guarantee the snake won't crawl away !

been there done that. pissed him off.........

I used to ride there quite a bit. Even rough cut some of the original loops back in about 1999 and then expanded it. I kind of lost interest in Arbor Hills after the city expanded the concrete path. They should have just left it alone, rather than cater to people with strollers and the handicapped. I still ride there every so often, I rode there last in February. I know a couple guys who work for Frito Lay and EDS that ride from up that far north down to White Rock Lake a couple times a week. Not that far, really.

all on trails? do you happen to know their route(s)?

They ride the streets to get there. I'm not sure how they cross the Tollroad or GB Turnpike. But once you get south of there, they take Meandering Way to Peyton to the White Rock Creek Trail. I know from White Rock Lake up to 121 it is 25 miles one way using the White Rock Creek Trail, Meandering Way, then loosely following the Plano hike/bike paths north under a utility right of way.

One guy lives off Windhaven somewhere in the Hebron area and I'm not sure on his route. He usually does the Leadville 100 most years and is usually the top Texas finisher or close to it. He works for Frito Lay at their HQ. Other guy is former military hard ass and works for EDS. One of those guys Ross Perot hand picked to work there. I'm not even sure what in the hell he did in the Army but it involved Iran-Contra and him getting nearly mortally wounded in the ass flying a helicopter in Nicaragua in the 80s. Like he took a 20mm shell in his butthole while piloting a helicopter. Now he does something with computers at EDS. He has some unbelievable stories which are all oddly true.

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