Northern Watersnake Wrapup

Since Northern Watersnakes were the stars of my trip to Great Swamp, and have also showed up along the Delaware-Raritan Canal, I wanted to give snake lovers a chance to see the whole suite of them. Despite a lot of mating going on, we're not going to see slithering baby snakelets for a while; the snakelets won't be born until 3-5 months after mating. If all goes well, some should be making their appearance in a July-September timeframe.

The moms will usually give birth to about 8 snakelets, but a large Northern Watersnake could give birth to as many as 30 snakelets.

The snake below lives along the Delaware-Raritan Canal in Franklin Township. Similar to turtles and frogs, watersnakes are usually found over or very near to water, and they'll try and escape there if a threat (or frequently a photographer) comes along.

April 27, 2021 at the Delaware-Raritan Canal
Photo 127320684, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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