Nice looking little Black Racer, looks like it's about to shed it's coat...glad the cat didn't do it in, although something clearly got its tail recently. It's one of the good guys to have around....

Tom

Hey Tom, I can see the ROUND pupils! COOL!

Carol

You can really see the skin getting ready to shed. Look at the tail - the coloration is almost translucent. It should be a dark black.

Not sure if a male or female. If male he would be holding the remote (LOL)

Thanks for the identification.

Even though I guess these are pretty common, I've never seen one before and I've lived here a long time and work in the yard alot. If I hadn't looked out the window when I did and seen the cat dancing around with it, I wouldn't have seen this one.

Thanks again.

Great snake picture! It's usually really hard to get a closeup of a black racer since they're so fast. I had a cat named Rascal that loved to catch all kinds of snakes and bring them home to show off. She never killed them but for some reason she preferred to present them to my Mom who is terrified of snakes although she is getting better about them. Rascal caught one black racer so many times that the snake would simply roll over onto it's back and play dead anytime she was near it. We have no idea how she kept finding the poor thing after we would release it but we could tell it was the same snake from all the scuff marks on it's scales. We eventually had to relocate the snake to a wooded area at least 5 miles away. Sadly Rascal passed away a year ago at the age of 19.

Kara

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you really get that close or use a zoom lens?

The pure black ones always pop out at me from up on a trellis or something. I have a lot of vines so they like to hang out up there eating bugs. I saw one actually up on a trellis eating wasps out of the air one year. I didn't know they did that.

Here's some other garter snakes at our old house. They used to get jiggy in the shrubs in the front yard every spring. I would go out to water and see this big snake ball rattling the bushes LOL!

purpleinopp:

I used the macro setting on the camera and was probably about 8 inches away from him.

He didn't look all that threatening at first until he got free of the cat at one point and raced towards me instead of away from both of us! Smart snake. I jumped about three feet in the air, then ran, and so did the cat (in the other direction), even though she was the one that started it all. Must have looked funny to anyone who may have been lucky enough to be looking.

ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh....... We have a black racer living in our back yard. I was watering one bed and turned to water the other and saw him lying under the tomato vines.... dropped the hose and ran into the house. Later that day I saw him slithering across the middle of the yard where I had been hanging out laundry a while earlier. He lives in a hole by the pool overflow. Totally freaks me out. A friend of mine told me to name him a funny name and say "good morning _____" and talk to him and that it would make it less scary..... DH has named him "kermit"...

Anyone recognize this little feller?

Tom

Not sure if a male or female. If male he would be holding the remote (LOL)

Billyboy, you're such a hoot!

Tom

The other night I was scrubbing baked on dishes and glanced out to see hubs jumping up in down with a look of anxiety. There was a [big says he] snake of unknown type blocking his and the dogs way into the house. Once we get the dogs safely inside, back out he goes [wearing shorts and sandals] with the water hose and a rake to 'find the snake'.

I casually mention to his dad 'Your son is out back in sandals carrying a rake and hunting an unknown brown snake. The poisonous snake guide on the fridge shows 2 brown snakes' Dad zooms off. Then comes back inside to grab the color chart off the fridge.

I had picked up his iPad and found a really cool Florida snake ID sight. So, I followed with iPad in hand out the back door.

Our brown snake was a ribbon snake. The sight makes it really easy to ID your snakes, at least I think. I never realized snakes could climb fences. So much for my fence line snake proofing along the bottom. This is along the back of property that backs up to 7 acres of wilderness. That housed coral snakes a few years ago.

I'm perfectly content with ribbon snakes. We shooed him over the fence and suggested he find another porch to hang out on.

The next morning, I was watering tomato pots on the other property line that has wild overgrowth beside it. A black racer and I startled each other. The black racer jumped back faster than me. I'm quite happy to have racers around here. They keep the mouse population contained.

Tom, is your little guy a juvenile racer?

~dianne

Here is a link that might be useful: Florida Snake ID Key

Tom,
That little snake in your pictures is a baby black racer.
See this link.
John

Looking at these pics is brining on an anxiety attack. I forced myself to look at them. I watch Discovery Channel in an attempt to overcome my fears. I nearly hyperventilate if I see a snake in person. I have no idea why I am so fearful.
Guess it's time to try hypnosis! :-)

Yup, Dianne and John, you win the prize...that's why I posted the pictures, so all could see the same snake in its infancy camouflage ;-)

Found a great snake guide site that includes an interactive identification page:

Here is a link that might be useful: U of F Online Guide to Florida Snakes

Why do I keep coming back to this post? I have to close my eyes when the first pic comes up, then ya'll post more pics!!!!!!!!!! My mom was afraid of snakes, therefore made us afraid. There is no reason for me to be freaked out, just that. I also have forced myself to look a pic's and even watch shows with them. But when I find them in my yard, that's another story! A few weeks ago I posted how to get rid of one because we had a black racer in our yard. It was sunning itself, and I even went out to look at it, from a good distance! Then later I went out and it was gone. I looked around and here it came, right at me! I freaked, ran inside and got my son up. He couldn't catch it but I haven't seen it since.

I have a dachshund named Fenway. He is the sweetest dog ever, unless you are a gecko, mouse, mole, or snake. I looked at him in the yard and saw he had the back end of a snake hanging out of his mouth like an extra long tongue. I never did find out where the "business" end wound up. I kept thinking of abdominal xrays and that snake head making it's way through his tummy. Yug.
Snakes don't bother me, but a spider or spider web? And what are those baseball size black spiders that hide under the laundry pile? They are going to give me a coronary someday!
CB

We have a black racer that hangs out around our place called "Monster." Actually, we have several and they are all called "Monster" ...

Hey Tom,

I've gotta ask, did that snake actually sit there posing long enough for you to get three different perspectives of him, or did you have three different people taking pictures from different positions at the same time? ;)

I'll miss my black racer when I go. He sometimes follows me around the yard when I'm out working, or stretches out somewhere close by. Scares the beejeezus out of me when he moves quickly to get away when I get too close, though!

I have a black racer living behind my garden also. My son and I saw it catch a lizard in the yard last week, it was so cool.

I've gotta ask, did that snake actually sit there posing long enough for you to get three different perspectives of him, or did you have three different people taking pictures from different positions at the same time? ;)

Don't forget that the young of any species are naive and know no fear...I shot all the pictures ;-)

Tom

Dang it ya'll, now I saw MY black racer for the first time this year. I think it's ya'lls fault. Scared the living daylights out of me. I yelled at him, "I knew you were going to be there, I knew it, I knew it" (after seeing all of YOUR pictures). What is it, black racer season? Where did they go all winter? Do they hibernate?

Carol