Posted by Melinda
on April 10, 2005, 5:32 pm
64.12.116.72
Hello. I opened the door this afternoon to let my 7 year old go out and play and there was a snake on the steps of the log cabin where we live. Normally, I don't freak out about snakes, but I can't identify it and now I am freaking out. It was relatively small and it was eating a skink lizard and was rolling the skink over and over. We thought it was kind of cool and watched it eat. I thought it was just a black snake. However, when it was done eating and we were going back inside (after keeping a healthy distance from it to begin with) it coiled up and it's tail starting shaking. I didn't see any rattles, though, which is what is really puzzling me. It was solid black (no pattern that I could see) with I think a white underbelly and it had a triangular shape small head (not that that appears to make any difference to the identification). I have looked at all the pictures I can find of timber rattlers, eastern rattlers and it doesn't look like any of them or the bull snakes. It wasn't very large, maybe a 1 feet in length and it wasn't very thick either and was having some difficulty getting the skink in its mouth without the skink pulling back out. But, I would really like to know what it is and if it is venomous as I have a little boy that really wants to go back outside and play. I don't want to him to come up on it and if I can determine where it would normally like to hang out, we will stay away from it. We live in southwestern Virginia if that makes any difference in the identification. Thanks for any help.
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