Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Bull Snake

The largest snake that we have in Minnesota is the bull snake. These large non-venomous snakes, they can grow up to over eight feet long, are a subspecies of the gopher snake and are found through out the central portions of North America. They eat a variety of prey including rodents, frogs, lizards, large insects and birds. They have a reputation for having a bad temper and will often imitate a rattle snake if cornered by a large predator, such as a person. Even though they are not a water snake I found that they can swim quite well when I spotted this one crossing the St Croix River near Lake Alice.

7 comments:

Cheryl Kohan said...

Wow - I had no idea we had such huge snakes here in Minnesota! Maybe they prefer rivers to lakes? (I hope.) Wonderful photograph...you can just see that snake slithering into the water.

laurak/ForestWalkArt :) said...

beautiful snake!! ALL your photos are GREAT!!! thanks!!

Magical Mystical Teacher said...

bull snake swims
across the river,
then glides on


Gliding through the Locks

Pamela said...

I was out walking the other night and narrowly missed stepping on a big boy like that -- sunning on the path.

The ladies behind me screamed -- otherwise that snake would have been wearing my tread imprint. Daresay what I would have been wearing. eewwwww

of course we have rattlers around here, so I might have been wearing a heart monitor. (:

Frostbite and Sunburn said...

Great photo, but ewwww - i don't "do" snakes and if I came across that fella, I'd have a real girly "freak" (and not proud of it!)!!

Gardening in a Sandbox said...

We have had three or four garder snakes in the garden this year. They are not my favourite thing to come upon but I give them their distance. I know they are a friend in the garden. However, I do not think I would be calm if I saw your bull snake in my garden. Oh my..

d4v34x said...

Actually, that is a fox snake. Looks alot like a bullsnake, but there are differences.