The Ophidiophobe, the animal lover and the screaming photographer
Corey Lablans @coreylablansphotography posted a photo yesterday (June 12, 2015) of a gull eating a snake. It gave me the courage to post this one. If you are an ophidiophobe, I'm sorry.
My husband hates snakes. He tends to kill them first and identify them later. A week before this one appeared, we had a black racer on our patio that he thought was a rattler. They do vibrate their tails which may make a rattling noise when the tail hits something, but they are not venomous. I washed the snake out the door with a garden hose.
Early one morning, my husband killed this snake close to our house. I was so sure it was the look-alike nonvenomous king snake that I screamed at him for overreacting. Our granddaughter was upset at the death of the poor snake. I had to apologize when we determined that it was indeed a coral snake.
When I took this photo to my photography class, most people (more ophidiophobes) could not even look at it. One or two agreed with our granddaughter.
Despite killing it, pretty cool record of it being around, maybe not it living in your area. Would love to get down to Florida and area for the summer to photograph snakes. Had a great time photographing Diamondbacks in Texas.
Red on yellow and you're a dead fellow.
Red on black, you're alright Jack.
When I saw the picture the first thing I thought I was the little rhyme @coreylablansphotography quoted . Then I second-guessed myself and was just about to look it up when I read your narrative! Holy moly good thing you killed this one! Like you I'm not afraid of snakes except the poisonous ones! Beautiful shot, Diane!
Red on yellow and you're a dead fellow.
Red on black, you're alright Jack.