Red Coachwhip

Description:

Dark snake with red marks and yellow/orange eyes. It has some dried mud on the top of its head. I stayed camped out, down wind in one spot for over 40 min and it didn't come out :( Is this a dark version of a Red Coachwhip, Coluber flagellum piceus? "A slender fast-moving snake with smooth scales, a large head and eyes, and a thin neck. Large scales above eyes. 17 scale rows at mid body. Coloration is variable; light brown, pink or reddish above with pink, brown, or black bands across the neck. Black and yellow phases of this subspecies are found outside of California. The dark coloring is interspersed with light coloring creating a banded or saddled appearance, with dark coloring surrounding the light scales. Color typically changes to a solid tan or reddish coloring along the length of the long thin tail. The braided appearance of scales on the tail (like a whip) gives this snake its common name." - California Herps

Habitat:

Chaparral at Lake Hodges. "Ranges throughout southern California from Ventura county to the Baja California border and north around the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains though the Great Basin desert into northwestern Nevada, and south through Nevada and much of Arizona to part of Sonora and Baja California. Apparently intergrades with C. f. rudocki in eastern Kem County." - California Herps