Finding the Elusive Eastern Hognose Snake

Bear with me, fishy people, for this post is not about fish. 

It's no secret that I'm an all around nature nut. I always have been. I have my mother and father to thank for that. If you've been reading this blog long enough you also know I'm head over heals in love with herps of all kinds. Turtles, frogs, salamanders, all of um. I can't get enough. But I often gravitate to animals that are much maligned. It's certainly a reason for the amount of time I spend talking up fish like bowfin, carp, gar, and lamprey. But years and years before my fish obsession, I latched onto snakes like a northern water snakes latches onto my arm when I grab it! 

Snakes are one of the most horribly treated, most widely mis-understood, and simultaneously the most important groups of animals on the planet. I have handled snakes pretty since I was in kindergarten. And though some passions of mine have cone and gone, the nature ones always stick. As with fishing, I am eternally looking for the next great snake. 

So. When my mother described a snake to me that perfectly matched a juvenile Eastern hognose snake, I had to go back to the site as soon as possible. Hognose are some of the most elusive snakes in the state. I had never gotten to see one. And females produce so many young that we could be in with a chance to see another. The first pass of the spot and the surrounding area produced no snakes, but an awesome beefy katydid.

Eastern sheildback katydid

On the way back through the are of the previous sighting I flipped a slab of granite pegmatite and found a cute little spotted salamander.

Ambystoma maculatum

We said goodbye and let it return into its home, then set about examining the immediate area of my mom's sighting. I rolled one stone, nothing, then moved to lift another. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a slithering grey checkered thingy... I grabbed it. Less then a second's observation and I knee it was what we were there for. This was undoubtedly the most adorable little snake I'd ever caught! Stout and seemingly built more for power than convenient locomotion, and with the perpetual smile-like appearance caused by its namesake upturned nose, this little runt was one of those snakes I quickly gravitated too.

Heterodon platirhinos

Unfortunately, for many people the reaction to their first encounter with a hognose goes very differently. These snakes are kings of the bluff. When approached by a big, menacing predator, they flatten out their head and neck, mimicking the broad-headed pit vipers that are the only native venomous snakes in most of their range: copperheads, cottonmouths, and rattlesnakes. Then they hiss, the loudest hiss you are likely to hear from a local snake. Eventually, of none of this works, they will start to flop around, roll onto their back, and open their mouth, playing dead. If provoked to strike, they rarely if ever actually bite, just whacking with its nose. This little guy struck at me twice. My response was just to giggle. Their bluffs often don't get the intended retreat from human being, which assume they are venomous and promptly smash them or chop them up. Which, to be completely clear, is NEVER an appropriate action to take on any snake, venomous or not, even if it's inside your home.
This is a real shame. Spend a couple minutes with one of these snakes an you can't help but enjoy their charisma and all bark-no-bite attitude. It took a little bit to get this guy to do any of the fear responses. I am probably the first thing to get this young stud to hiss, and it was so  awesome to see and hear such a noise coming from such a tiny snake!

There's one thing that I hope comes across in this blog, and it's my reverence for all of nature. If a little of this rubs off on one or two of you... I'll be very happy.
Hognose are one of a number of snakes that could be locally extinct before I die. If you don't care... I'm sorry for you. You have no clue what you are missing.

Until next time.

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

 If you enjoy what I'm doing here, please share and comment. It is increasingly difficult to maintain this blog under dwindling readership. What best keeps me going so is knowing that I am engaging people and getting them interested in different aspects of fly fishing, the natural world, and art. Follow, like on Facebook, share wherever, comment wherever. Also, consider supporting me on Patreon (link at the top of the bar to the right of your screen, on web version). Every little bit is appreciated! Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, john, Elizabeth, and Christopher, for supporting this blog.