Showing posts with label rat snake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rat snake. Show all posts

Tuesday, 5 August 2025

Perth Wildlife Preserve Part 3

No, we weren't done yet! I usually put too many photos in my posts. I thought I'd show some restraint, and curate them better! 

We toodled along the easy trail to the lookout. We did fairly well, and decided to go on the back leg of the trail. Grampa braved the rough path. He'd brought his walking stick, which was excellent.






The issue with walking mid day, is that you don't see nocturnal critters or critters that come out at dusk and dawn. That doesn't mean they aren't there! I do like the signage. It teaches respect for the unseen critters.

These photos of the flying squirrel are from our time living in Bala. They loved visiting the feeders in the night, and they were fun to watch.

More signage. This is all about the rat snakes. I know they are at-risk, and it is excellent to show how you can host them. What you need is a hibernaculum for them. They hibernate underground, usually under rock piles. We have a lot of those in Lanark County.


I told Joe there was a snake in the hole. He peeked.
"Made you look!" We needed a laugh. 

Aster and Jordan love snakes. Here is the rat snake ambassador at the local park in 2017. They both held it. They are gentle snakes, and eat birds, rodents and all, and can get to 6' long. 
It's hard to believe Jordan is going to Queens University in September. Aster heads to gr. 10.

Murphys Point Park 2017

These huge vines are wild grapes, winding themselves around the evergreens! Not snakes!


The paths vary, as good habitat does. There were more mosquitoes on the grassy bits, but under the pine trees, you could smell the sap. 

I was travelling with a fun guy!

The birds weren't plentiful. Most have mated, nested, and fledged their offspring. There were the usual chickadees, blue jays, woodpeckers, etc., that I could hear. I found one wee feather on the trail.

There was information about shrikes. I've seen one here at home once, maybe twice. The last one was February, 2025. It was cold, and food scarce.

 

There were dozens of wee green, leopard frogs sitting on the path, hopping out of my way as I marched along.


Peering through the forest trail, I could see the parking lot. We made it, a 3.5 km trip! 


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Yesterday I mentioned our Ottawa family. Today, an update on our Vancouver kids, Jesse took Cluny and Bryony camping somewhere in B.C.!






A Crumbly Acres update: we spotted miniFred on Sunday, Aug. 4th. This morning, she is out on the lower deck. They don't hang out together. 

Saturday, 12 June 2021

How about this gray rat snake!

We really like snakes! The gentle gray rat snakes are fascinating. Our girls really like snakes. They've learned about them. We don't have any poisonous ones around here. Water snakes are known for biting, but these gentle creature just roam looking for critters in the trees.


July, 2017

Nearby Murphys Point Park has a display all about rat snakes, and they track them with monitors.

This is from a camping trip and visit the girls made to Murphys Point Park, when they track these endangered snakes.

gray rat snake
The girls are such hams!

This is a series of tweets and videos from Kim, whom I follow on Twitter. She lives here in southeast Ontario. It's hilarious! Her commentary, I mean.  

From Ontario Nature

: The gray ratsnake (Pantherophis spiloides) is the largest snake in Canada and can grow to 2.5 metres in length. Juveniles are distinctly blotched, but older individuals become increasingly black with only faint patterning. The belly is whitish with black checkerboard markings, and the throat is a uniform cream or white.

View an interactive map of the known ranges of gray ratsnakes in Ontario. 


JB went in for footcare, and saw a dead gray rat snake by the side of the road. So sad. This is part of the reason they are endangered. 


For more critters: Saturday's Critters # 391


Wednesday, 27 July 2011

Snakes in Ontario

I don't mind snakes. I can't say I brake for them, as they look like a stick!
I must say I've ridden my bike past a few roadkill snakes. Pretty gross.

I have a couple of resources to help me identify snakes, frogs, especially tree frogs, trees, snapping turtles, beavers, painted turtles, ducks and geese, and the other wonders of the rural scene in cottage country.

Lots of snakes about recently. I stepped on one the other day. I don't know how. I screamed like a girl!

Walking across the lawn, which must be an acre in size, I stepped on the middle of something that curled up around my foot on both sides. I guess I was swatting the deer flies, and not watching where I was going. [We've had the odd case of Lyme Disease around here, too. The bugs are bad.]

Rattler range
A garter snake, it was, poor thing. I picked it up and it was alive, took it to the brush. What a surprise!

I haven't any rattle snake photos. They simply aren't around here, fortunately, although I like them letting me know I'm disturbing them. Thanks for the photo by Bruce Clark.

Rattle snakes in Ontario exist more in Central Ontario, around Georgian Bay. As a child, spending summers in Muskoka, I recall them blasting to put roads through the rock cuts. It disturbed the rattlers, and while we saw the odd one before, they began to move out. With habitat loss, and people randomly killing them, their range has radically shrunk.

There are four populations: Bruce Peninsula, SE in the Georgian Bay range, Ojibway and the Wainfleet range.
For more info on Massasauga rattlers:

ALSO in Ontario: Eastern Milk, Norther Water, Eastern Hognose, Fox, and so on.
Northern Redbelly

Eastern Garter snake
rat snake
They are such hams!
garter snake


rat snake

water snake
water snake




Rattle Snake - courtesy Bruce Clark
Eastern massassagua rattler