When a Northern Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon) sensed my presence at the edge of a pond this weekend at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, it began to swim right at me. As the snake grew larger and larger in my viewfinder, I assumed it would veer off. I was wrong. The snake actually came out of the water and I captured this first shot of the triumphant snake who forced me to back away.
Initially the snake was swimming lazily in the shallow water of the pond, seemingly basking in the warm of the midday sun.
Suddenly the snake turned its head and looked straight at me. It did not look amused.
The snake started to flick its forked tongue and began to swim rapidly through the vegetation that separated us.
A part of my brain certainly understood that the snake was not as close as it looked in my telephoto zoom lens, but a more instinctive, primordial part of the brain kicked in when the snake started to fill the viewfinder. I know that this kind of snake is not poisonous and that I had nothing to fear, those rational thoughts were crowded out by the emotional responses that screamed at me that I needed to back away.
I honestly did not expect the snake to come out of the water and it happened so fast that I am not sure how it did it. The snake seemed to propel itself out of the water in a jump. Once it was on terra firma, the snake assumed the confrontational pose that you see in the first photo.
This round goes to the snake.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Well, tataa….hehe, no friends with snakes. Great shots though, not a blur in any…hehe.
Fascination overcomes fear, up to a certain point.
Great shots, Mike. I just took my little grand-daughter to the zoo. She was not amused by any of the snakes!! 😦
For most people, it’s a love/hate relationship with snakes and spiders. Some of my friends love them, but many of my friends keep telling me to stop posting those kinds of images.
While sitting on my patio a long black snake has just slithered by. First one I’ve seen since moving here seven years ago! I think he’s a ‘good’ one though-keeps rodents away from the house. How ironic! 😊
Fantastic shots! I’ve seen snakes in water at a distance but never close up. It would be cool to see one emerge from the water.
There seem to be a pretty good number of these water snakes in the places I visit and on rare occasion I’ll see them capture a prey. It’s pretty graphic, but I’ve seen them swallow frogs and a fish. They swallow them whole while the prey is still alive. Yikes!
Now that really would be cool to see! I’ve only ever seen captive snakes consume prey. I need to go for woodland walks on my own as my noisy kids scare everything off.
Fantastic story Mike! This is that season of babies and nests when creatures do all sorts of unpredictable, perhaps protective, things. I’m glad you stuck around for the close-ups (awesome), but I’m also glad you let the snake win. 😀
nice photos mike, will have to keep an eye out for the snakes next time out at Meadowlark.
Great story. I’d cede ground to a snake any day. Are there poisonous snakes in your area?
They saw there are no poisonous snakes in the area. However, this water snake is supposed to deliver a nasty bite and its saliva has an anti-coagulant in it, so it will bleed a lot. Poisonous? No. Painful? Yes.
Maybe it just wanted to be friends 😉 Amelia
As far as I am concerned, any snake is bad news, especially in Australia! But great shots Mike!
Thanks, Chris. It’s really important to know what creatures you may encounter. When I lived in Arizona, I knew there were poisonous rattlesnakes around, so I was super cautious.
Maybe it was trying different strategies with you.
That seems like odd behavior for a snake. They usually run the other way.
Perhaps the snake was merely swimming to the shore, but that doesn’t make for as good a story line. 🙂
Watersnakes can be very aggressive. And even though they’re not poisonous, I bet their bite would hurt like heck, not to mention the possibility of infection. It’s a good thing you backed away!! Great pics, though – that’s the important thing – 😉
Good photos and a fun story. What more could I ask for from a situation?
Indeed…. smile.
What an interesting behavior from this snake, one I always thought was pretty timid. I think you must have “tasted” good (the tongue flick) and the snake was curious to learn more…
It’s always dangerous to impute human motives on wild creatures, but it was fun to do so in this case and to create the narrative that linked the photos. This was one of the postings when I had as much fun writing it as taking the photos.