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Pituophis catenifer sayi
Bullsnakes are among our longest snakes here in Minnesota; I've seen them longer than five feet long. They tend to be a dirty yellow with darker brown, black and red scales. They are constrictors that feed primarily on ground squirrels and ground nesting birds.
Grasslands and shrublands.
Spotted on Sep 17, 2013
Submitted on Sep 17, 2013
11 Comments
Beautiful spotting Gordon! Please be sure to add this to the Snakes of the United States – CSC mission to help with their citizen science project!
http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/1202...
Thank you so much Gordon.
Jemma, I used a Canon 5DmkII with a 300mm f4L lens and 1.4x converter. I also used some fill flash using a Canon 430EXII flash, -1.5 f-stop compensation to touch up the shadows on this very bright day.
you have a great pic here. Which camera do you use,if I may ask?
I wish people would think 1000 times before killing anything!
Yeah, I had one scare me once pretty badly when it started to "rattle" within a foot of my leg and before I spotted it. HA! This one, of course, was on a dry, gravel road so had no leaves in which to rattle, but I could see it's tail quivering. Rattling works really good on things that want to avoid a snake, but it is a behavioral adaptation that doesn't work very well around people who tend to kill benign mimics.
Great spotting...
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/378...
Because they mimic rattle snakes,they tend to be killed.
that indeed is very sad. I love these snakes. People keep them as pets too and have a good natured streak in them.
Thanks. This is a "species of special concern", in Wisconsin as much of their habitat has been destroyed, the species is uncommon. I've seen other gophersnakes (bullsnakes) in this area including a mating pair several years ago, but they are rare. As a result, this was a very nice spotting as it is a very young animal that indicates breeding is still going on in this area.
Nice spotting, Gordon!