Today we had an adventure. My friends Laurie, Charles Avenengo, and I went to western Connecticut to look for Five Lined Skinks. These small lizards are the only lizard species to live in New England. Spoiler alert, we did not see any skinks and this story is not about them.
Our goal was to look for the skinks in the morning. Hopefully we would see one early then in the early afternoon try some other hills that I know to have Copperheads. We have tried for Copperheads two times before and dipped both times. We went for them in October last year and also on May 5th of this year. Both times we had really nice weather that was perfect for snakes which made it that much more frustrating that we didn't see any.
Today, the three of us made it to our first trail about 9:30 am. We ate a quick snack and hiked up. We took our time and looked at every crevice and sunny rock ledge hoping to see a Five Lined Skink or even a Rattlesnake. I was willing to bet that in that part of Connecticut Timber Rattlesnakes slither in the hills. Spoiler alert number two, we did not see any Timber Rattlesnakes but it did give us an excuse to go slow and we were optimistic.
Our goal was to really check out the ledges at the top of these hills. Hopefully we would find a lizard scurrying around. After a short but steep climb we made it to our first overlook. The trees had grown up and there really wasn't any views to the valley below. However, we did stop and look down into the rocks below. While Charles and I were looking down on the rocky outcrops we hear Laurie say this as she is looking at the area on the summit.
Laurie said " This looks like a good area for a snake."
Two seconds later
Hey! There is a snake!"
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| See the two shades of brown? |
So Charles and I walk over and I get to Laurie first because I was closer. I see a brown snake with hourglass markings and my first thought is Copperhead, but I say to them it might be a Milk Snake because a Copperhead would be too good to be true. However, in the five seconds it takes Charles to get to me, I realize Laurie did indeed find a Copperhead!
A little background on Copperheads. Copperheads are a venomous snake. Though they rarely kill people, they do carry enough venom that it is a possibility. They get to be about three feet long and are a thick bodied snake. They eat a variety of prey smaller than themselves including mice and lizards. They live from the Florida panhandle to Massachusetts. Mass and Connecticut really are the northern edge of their range. While they may be in all suitable habitat in Virginia, up here they live in pockets of woods in very specific places.
Copperheads bite more people in the United States than any other venomous snake. The reason is because they are so well camouflaged people step on them. The irony is they are very docile, especially when you consider they can kill you. Most snake species will try to move away from humans. Of course, rattlesnakes will rattle and warn you of their presence. Copperheads, do not move in the hopes of not being seen. Their goal is for you and I to walk by them without us ever seeing them.
So back to Laurie's snake...So the Copperhead was only two feet off of the trail. There was a little small vegetation around "it" but it was pretty much in the open. It was so well camouflaged it really looked like the dead leaves that it was on. We found the head and started taking photos. Keeping in mind, that this snake really is an arm's length from the trail. So we are taking photos from two feet away. As we are looking at it, we realize "it" is two different shades of brown. One is dull and dry while the other is a brighter crisper shade which makes us realize that this snake might not be one snake but two! So we follow the outline of both shades of brown with our eyes and sure enough two heads! The snakes were intertwined around each other.
So we are doing our best to take photos of both of the snakes trying to get an angle around a stump, a rock, and the brush. The Copperheads don't move at all and when one took a deep breathe we were very excited. So now we have two Copperheads at our feet and I am taking photos from right above them and I glance over about a foot and there was a third Copperhead minding its own business!
It wasn't touching the other two but was about a foot away. It was the hardest to get a photo of because of the brush. Copperheads blend in so well in dead leaves that we had been looking at the other two for fifteen minutes before we even saw this one. We watched the three Copperheads for close to a half hour. I took photos from right above them. I realized I had gotten too close and took one photo, at most, eighteen inches away from the fangs of one. I realized I had enough photos and the snake very easily could have bit my hand. Lesson learned, luckily not the hard way.
We left the snakes and went to our next overlook. We didn't see any lizards or any more snakes, but it wasn't for the lack of trying. When you see three venomous snakes two feet from the trail and they are three feet long, you look at the ground differently. All three of us watched every step we took from that point forward. We had to go back the way we came so we stopped at our new friends again for ten minutes. They each moved about a foot but were where we had left them.
When we got down to the car we drove to a different trailhead and hiked another hill to look for lizards but came up short. No matter, I got to see a species that was on my bucket list for two years. Laurie and I had already invested over twenty hours of our lives searching for Copperheads, so it was more than just a lifer for us. It was a species we really wanted to see. Charles had only seen Copperheads one day in his life despite being a very experienced herper. We had a two and a half hour drive each way and honestly, it flew by. The conversation was so great and we all had stories to share. We learned a lot from and each other and really enjoyed each other's company. It was an epic day!
More photos below. Basically, photos taken from different angles of snakes that did not move.
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