Mike Powell

What is your first reaction when you see a snake? If you are like many people, you turn and run away as fast as you can. My reaction is generally the opposite one—I move closer to the snake, either physically or with a zoom lens, in order to get a more detailed look at it. Most of the snakes in our area are non-poisonous, but I still remain very cautious, because some of them will strike and/or bite.

On Monday I spotted a large black snake in the vegetation at Occoquan Regional Park. As I started to get a little closer, it began to vibrate its entire body and the dried leaves helped to create a rattling kind of sound. Yikes! I decided that I was close enough to get a few shots. Usually the black snakes that I encounter are ratsnakes, but this one turned out to be a Northern Black Racer (Coluber constrictor constrictor). The two species of snakes are somewhat similar in appearance, but the scales of the black racer are smoother and more shiny in appearance.

I decided to check out the website of the Virginia Herpetological Society for more information on the black racer and was surprised to learn that “Coluber constrictor does not constrict, as the scientific name implies, but pins its prey with body loops and swallows it alive.”

The website also noted that “Coluber constrictor has a catholic diet,” which caused me to do a double take. I grew up in a predominantly Roman Catholic neighborhood and tend to associate the word “catholic” with that church, so I immediately wondered how the snake determined the religious preferences of its victims. When a sense of reality returned to me, I remembered that “catholic” with a small initial letter simply means “universal,” so that statement probably just means that the black racer has a wide-ranging diet.

Ever curious, I wondered why this species is called a “racer.” Do they compete in competitions? The herpetological society provided the following information about the snake’s hunting habits:

“Northern Black Racers are active, diurnal predators that use vision to search for prey. Coluber constrictor actively forages with the forepart of the body raised off the ground and the head held horizontally searching for prey. They will seek escape by swiftly moving to thick grass cover or into a burrow entrance…Because they are active snakes that widely search for prey, they have large home ranges. Movements of up to 1.6 km have been recorded.”

My apologies to those readers who are creeped out by photos of snakes. I find then to be as fascinating as the more traditionally “beautiful” creatures that I often feature.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.