northeast-flora-and-fauna

For Throwback Thursday, here's a picture from a little over 9 years ago, probably taken from a smartphone. It's an Eastern Ratsnake  I met at Sourland Mountain Preserve. I was walking down a rocky path when I suddenly encountered the snake. Though startling, I knew that this mostly-black snake couldn't be either of my area's 2 venomous snakes (i.e. Copperhead, Eastern Timber Rattlesnake). Though I thought the snake was pretty big at the time, they can apparently get much bigger than this fella; they can get up to 7 feet long. When I posted this to iNaturalist, I tentatively IDed it as a Northern Black Racer. I got the comment that in my area the Northern Black Racer wouldn't have that dim pattern on the back, which then left what my field guide called the Black Ratsnake. But apparently my field guide is a little out of date concerning the ratsnakes, and this is now classified as an Eastern Ratsnake. Apparently the ratsnakes used to be categorized mostly by color, w...