I envy you. I haven 't seen a live snake in Illinois now in 20 years, except for a pregnant massasauga in a forest preserve about 3 miles from here. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim McKenney" <jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com> To: "'Pacific Bulb Society'" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2011 3:39 PM Subject: Re: [pbs] OT - Invasive Snakes Judy, what a coincidence! I suddenly have a snake story of my own to tell. A few minutes ago my mom came to me and asked me if I saw the snake on the front porch. Since she's having memory problems, at first I assumed that she was remembering something from the past (it has happened). But when I asked her about it again, she told me she had seen a snake on the front porch. I went and took a look and sure enough there was a snake on the front porch, a live snake, a live snake in the winter. It's a juvenile black rat snake, our largest local snake. Because this species climbs well and spends much time above ground, it has persisted where ground dwelling species have disappeared (probably largely due to domestic cat predation). I sometimes find the shed skins of this species in the attic, and I suspect that they hibernate there. After getting some photos, I gathered up the snake and put it in my most protected cold frame (it can easily get out of this if it wants to because rodents have tunneled into this frame). Here's a picture of the snake: http://jimmckenney.com/black_rat_snake.htm Maybe this snake believes in global warming. We have two and an half months of potentially bitter weather ahead of us, so maybe it will change its mind. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/ _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/