Well its getting close to kick off time at the park where Mike Tony and I work. the upcoming weekend promises to be quite a buzz with all of our scheduled programs for scouts and the general public – our most prized of all clients. This weekend 4/28/2012 will be nonstop for us all Herp related. To make sure we are better prepared it customary for members of our staff to legally obtain some native species from to serve as props for the programs. All animals are also customarily released back into their natural habitats unharmed soon after.

The morning started out cold and rainy but Mike suggested we go out and search anyway before he was scheduled to work. So wihout too much twist of the arm I agreed and we headed out to some familiar sights that usually produce a few small snakes and possibly some decent phibs.

We moved along flipping previously laid cover boards, the artifical hides made from plywood, finding mostly very dry substrate and ants and a few other insects. On the second to last board Mike yells out “Mark!! Come check this out!!!” I initially thought what possibly could he be so excited about. So I made my way over to Mike and there he was starring intently over the raised cover board and at the dry earth below. There lying side by side were two worm snakes one of which was definitely unusual. Neither one of us had seen anything like it so we could only specualte what it could be. The one snake was definitely smaller and pink above and very pink below as opposed to the larger worm snake that had the normal brown dorsum with pink ventral side.

A draft of the VHS Field Note Entry is shown below:

Carphophis amoenus amoenus (Eastern Wormsnake) VA: Fairfax County, Ellanor C. Lawrence Park, 5040 Walney Rd., Chantilly, VA 20151 (38 51.7°N,-77 26.0 °W). 22 April, 2012. Michael Gregory and Mark Khosravi

Coloration: On 22 April, 2012 at 11:43AM an albino Eastern Wormsnake (Carphophis a. amoenus) was discovered in mixed cedar and hardwoods section along the Walney tract of area of Ellanor C. Lawrence Park. The specimen was found alongside a wild type worm snake under the same coverboard. Classic albinism was exhibited including red/pink eyes and a lack of any pigmentation except for a light yellowish coloration around the edges of the dorsal scales.

Albinism in Carphophis amoenus amoenus has been previously reported in Arlington County, VA (Allard, H. A. 1945. A color variant of the eastern worm snake. Copeia 1945:42) and in James City County, VA (Somma, Matthew. 2012. Field Notes – Coloration, Catesbeiana Volume 32 Number 1).

Mark Khosravi
[7155 Main Street
Clifton, VA 20124]

Whenever you consider obtaining a snake as a pet or maintaining a wild one in captivity for even a short period of time be sure to secure that the enclosure they are in is secure. Snakes are escape artist and if your enclosure has the slightest flaw they (snakes) will exploit it and escape.

(above in this photo is an idea of where the snake sought refuge. As you can see there is no way for a perosn to fit under that baseboard other than trying to reach an arm under there. Even that had its limitations. That snake could have been anywhere under there. Thanks to Harrison’s ingeniuos plan of taking pic with a cell phone worked out part of the problem we had to solve which was finding the damn thing!!)

Such is the case of the 4 ft northern water snake that escaped its enclosure prior to a presentation. The animal of course is a nonvenomous species and the public was never in danger but the potential for a unique surprise to anyone not suspecting an encounter with such things could have been very interesting experience.

The photo above was taken between a wall and a row of computer cabinets where the snake was believed to have been hiding. Access to the area was extremely limited given the width between wall and cabinet was slightly over one foot wide. The pic was taken using a cell phone and was done so by blindly sticking my hand behind the wall and taking a “blind” photo. This gave me a view of what the area looked like behind the cabinets and hopefully would be able to see if the snake was actually there or not. I wish I could take the credit for this idea but the reality is that the idea was from a student Harrison Gust. Brilliant idea on Harrison’s part.

Well as you can see I was able to locate the snake and this was encouraging but now we had to figure a way to capture it without harming it and damaging any of the cosntruction of the wall or cabinets. To make a long story short our plan was to take out portions of the wall where the cabinets were locates (to the right in the photo where the snake body can be seen.) if this option didnt work plan B was to send in a volunteer who was small enough to climb in and wrangle the snake that way. This option was absolutely the last resort given the only one small enough and crazy enough to do this was a another herp enthusiast and student Kyle Appelbaum. Fortunately it didnt come to this and in the end we were able to corner it and I was able to remove it unharmed. The snake has released back into the wild unharmed

Northern water snakes are often mistaken to be cotton mouths or water moccaisons because of their demeaner and the fact that they swim in water. The opposite is rue. They are nonvenomous but wull bite repeatedly if you attempt to handle one. They are well adept at coralling and catching fish. Their recurved teeth allow them to hold onto their fish prey and I have on several occaisons seen them holding some very large fish with those teeth!!

Above Marbled Salamander found by Mike during a an early morning walk along a wetland area within a Regional Park. Also found were a spotted salamander (below) in the same vacinity. Both species belong to a group of salamanders known as mole salamanders simply because they burrow after their done with their breeding season. The two often utilize the same vernal pools but breed at different times of the year and lay their eggs differently. Spots breed in late winter or early spring and lay their eggs in water. Marbled breed earlier on usually in the Fall and their eggs are laid in depressions on land near water where the eggs can be washed into vernal pools with the later fall of early winter rains.

We decided to go to a few parks in Fairfax county where we have permission and can access given our staus with the park system.
Our first encounter was not in the form of scales but in feathers, There were wood peckers everywhere in particular northern flickers-and I mean everywehre!! Mike and I left the meadow area and worked our way along a creek bed looking for any sign of phibs or reptiles. The skies were clear and sunny and the temps a cool mid 50′s and with no rain not the greatest conditions for reptiles. We followed the creek until it formed a wetland area that bordered a larger stream. Crossed the stream followed up a road bed though some cedars.

On our way we found a pile of flicker feathers and an “owl pellet” lying on the ground.

We also found an eastern Box turtle. The road took us to an abandoned house site-or barn area. Lots of debris lying around and perfect conditions for the elusice mole king we came to find. Well after numerous flips of tires and carhoods and sheet metal roofing material no sign of the mole king. Right about the time we were to move away from the site I lifted an old car seat and dislodged a small broadhead skink.

Took some pics of it then let it go. Again flipped more debris but nothing. Then as we were heading back toward the road bed I found another car hood. flipped this one and there underneath and beginning to stir was an adult black racer. Mike hadnt seen one before so this was going to be a treat! Well I picked up the racer starting to admire it when Mike yelled look another one. So now we were dealing with two snakes but the second one want a racer but instead a an adult black rat!

So I grabbed both and we began filming and taking pics like we always do. As were releasing the snakes and staring to replace the hood as we found it Mike spots a third snake tucked in the crevice of the carhood. Another adult black rat!

Well that was exciting and we figured that alone was worht the trip. As we left this area we made our way to higher ground where a large outcrop of rocks rose well above the meadow and cedars. At the summit Mike flips a rock and yells SNAAAKE!. I come running and we both ascertain it is indeed our target species- a baby mole king!!!

We photo and vid the snake then released it and continued to look for more-maybe a copperhead. No copperhead but I was able to find two eastern worm snakes on that site before we left.

After lunch Mike suggested we try anther stream valley not far from his house. We heard from a park visitor that he had found red bellied water snakes a species that should not be found this far north. But given how humans have been repsonisble for so many other species of critters and plants to our area did not seem far fetched to us. So we decided to investigate. At least we could find some common water snakes if there were no red bellied ones so we decided to go.
No red bellied but we did observe a single water snake basking just out of our reach so we too ka pic or two then left for another section of the same stream a few miles away.

Arriving at our last site for the day Mike pointed out how there are a couple of habitat areas that have great potential. The first area comprised of mix hardwoods followed by wetland separated by a paved bike path then riparian zone and then the main stream. Some Drains bisected the bike path allowing for the wet areas to drain excess water into the main stream. At this location we found in the woods worms snakes and in the wetlands closest to the bike path Mike found a nice spotted salamander. When Mike finds something we know it!! ” Mark!! I got a spotted or Mark!!!! Snake!!!” then I come running. Well soon after Mikes Spotted sal discovery I hear SNAKE!!!. So I come running and quickly discover for myself the large bodied water snake.

What Mike hadnt noticed was that right next to her was aother snake but smaller-most likely a male. What a day we had!!