Unlike the 2007 youngster I featured here, this is –quite positively– a blotched watersnake, Nerodia erythrogaster transversa, an adult. Adults are often much easier to positively identify than youngsters.
The blotched watersnake is a subspecies designation of the plainbelly watersnake, Nerodia erythrogaster. You can see where they get their common species name in the photograph to the right. Plainbellies have, well, plain bellies. Most Nerodias (the dominant genus of North American watersnakes) have some kind of ventral markings, but plainbellies are plain through and through. Usually. That’s one of the reasons the youngster referenced in the previous post still throws me off (though, again, I’m not sure what juvenile blotched watersnakes typically look like from below).
This individual was seen in 2004 during a summer trip to the midwest for an OU committee meeting (I was preparing for my Masters defense) and for two friends’ wedding in Missouri. I was sure to save a dash of time to run down to the Wichita Mountains and to root around the residential creeks of Norman, Oklahoma. I found the rowdy adult featured here in a feeder creek leading into William Morgan Park in northwest Norman. This is the same vicinity I found the previously-posted youngster.
Though I spent a good portion of my childhood rooting around for snakes and lizards, I wasn’t an avid photographer. The digital technology wasn’t there and I didn’t have the budget to process tons of film. Most of my old photographs (and there were still plenty) are of friends, school, parties, and stuff like that. It wasn’t until 2004 –a year after I acquired my first digital camera– that I started actively photographing wildlife.
This snake (and this trip) was one of the first where I actively went outside with the goal to photographically record species.
There are a minimum of three compositions I always try to capture, whenever possible: a profile of the head, a ventral scale representation, and a dorsal/torso shot. I try to get multiple angles of the head and face, as well — from the top, from the side, and from the bottom. “Art” is sometimes a goal, but more often than not I’m thinking of reference compositions — photographs that adequately represent an individual and could be used in identification to some degree or another.
I don’t consider these to be amazing photographs, but I do think they served their original purpose quite well. These are fairly decent reference shots of the blotched watersnake, a commonly-observed, non-venomous watersnake found throughout central Oklahoma (and elsewhere). Next time I see one, however, I’m going to shoot more for the artsy side of things! Heh. They are beautiful Nerodias!
~ janson
Filed under: Oklahoma, Snakes Tagged: Nerodia erythrogaster
