Snakes commonly happy to be left alone

As one may have guessed of a guy who tends to frequent swampy spots and rock piles and spends hours and sometimes days riding up and down what amounts to a perfect reptile heating pad — the warm asphalt of a rural bicycle trail — I run into snakes on occasion. Each one of those encounters is a treasure to me. I love snakes.

As much as I enjoy a good snake sighting, I rarely actually seek them out, preferring instead to enjoy a happy surprise of nature when a snake crosses my path. Snakes appreciate us leaving them be and would prefer to never be seen at all. More often than not, bad things happen when most folks encounter a snake, and very rarely is it the human who suffers.

I had a chance recently to prove to a whole mess of youngsters that snakes are most often a harmless and beneficial neighbor if left undisturbed.

The venue was a small farm pond during a recent kids’ conservation camp put on by my friends at Holmes Soil & Water Conservation District. My part in this year’s event was working with dozens of school kids at the water’s edge, where we netted all sorts of critters, examined them closely and then returned them to their homes. The isolated pond where we worked was a treasure trove. A long-ago excavation fed by a spring, the pond was now surrounded by trees, alive with insects and filled with amphibians.

In the early morning, as the fog was burning off, I thought this might make the perfect venue for a snake or two, and our first snake spotting was nothing more than a head poking up from the leafy sediment at the bottom of the pond. The kids marveled over the quiet patience of that snake as it seemed to be simply waiting out our noisy disruption. What he was really waiting for was a bit of sunshine.

By the time the sun fully illuminated the quarter-acre body of water, no fewer than eight large common water snakes were basking happily on fallen limbs, large rocks and cattail islands safely beyond the noise and the nets. This was a perfect introduction for the kids.

The common water snake is indeed common and can be found all over the state, nearly any place with persistent surface water. Ponds, streams, wetlands, stormwater basins — if there’s enough water for food to flourish, chances are good a common water snake will be there to dine. Amphibians (tadpoles, frogs and salamanders), fish, and invertebrates like leeches and crawdads are all on the menu. I’ve even seen a common water snake snatch a wriggling nightcrawler from a fisherman’s hook!

Not overtly shy, the common water snake seems fine with offering a thrill at a distance, but try to hold one in your hand and you’re likely to end up with a painful, albeit nonvenomous bite accompanied by a musky stink you’ll not soon forget.

If you have comments on this column or questions about the natural world, write The Rail Trail Naturalist, P.O. Box 170, Fredericksburg, OH 44627, or emailjlorson@alonovus.com. You also can follow along on Instagram @railtrailnaturalist.