Corralitas Drive: Ring-Necked Snake V.S. Cat

Photo: Corralitas Neighbor, August 12, 2017.  A neighbor's cat found a tiny snake to play with.  Use the garden hose for scale.

Photo: Corralitas Neighbor, August 12, 2017.  It was a fast moving, squirmy little thing, fascinating the cat.

Photo: Corralitas Drive Neighbor, August 12, 2017.  The snake was about a foot long, the width of a pencil, olive green, dark head, light ring around the neck.  It was a Ring-Necked Snake. 

Photo: Corralitas Drive Neighbor, August 12, 2017.  The snake made a break for nearby rocks where it made its getaway,  distracting the cat by wiggling and curling/uncurling the bright red underside of it tail.

Ring-Necked Snakes in our neighborhood live in the leaf litter below big trees and lots of shade.  They seem to prefer areas with more moisture on Riverside Place, Corralitas Drive and Red Car Canyon.  According to California Herps, they eat Slender Salamanders - also found in all the same habitat in the neighborhood.

Learn more about Ring-Necked Snakes: California Herps.

Worth noting on California Herps is the conservation status.  USDA Forest Service lists the subspecies as "Sensitive;" Nature Serve State Ranking: S2, "Imperiled in the state because of rarity due to very restricted range, very few populations (often 20 or fewer), steep declines, or other factors making it very vulnerable to extirpation from the state."  

Luckily this snake got away!

Note: We're playing catch up for the month of August. This was post was actually published 8-24-17 and backdated to the date the photos were shot and originally published on Twitter. 
 

Corralitas Drive: Rattlesnake or Gopher Snake?

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, June 18, 2017.  Every year I get a few panicked calls/emails/texts from neighbors who think they've seen a rattlesnake on or around the Red Car Property.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Luckily, now most neighbors grab their phones now and take photos from a safe distance.  All photos here have been cropped.  

The neighbor first texting me the story of working in the garden and hearing what sounded like a rattlesnake. "I thought I knew about snakes, I was obsessed as a kid.  I looked at the tail immediately, looked like a gopher snake but the rattle had me shook.  A neighbor's cat started pawing at it and hearing a rattle, I panicked."  The neighbor shooed the cat away safely. and the snake disappeared under the leaves and patio. I asked for photos and to my surprise, there were many to choose from.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, June 18, 2017. (enlarged from previous photo.)  Head: inconclusive from this angle, the light makes it appear articulated from the neck.  It the best head shot the neighbor got.  However, the spotted pattern looks like Gopher snake.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, June 18, 2017. Hard to get both the head and the tail of the 3.5 to 4' long snake in the same shot.  Gopher snakes will mimic rattlesnakes by shaking their tails in the grass or leaves, even coiling up in a defensive position like a rattlesnake because it scares the potential predator (in this case a human).  

I have witnessed such behavior many times, as have a number of neighbors.  Take a step back and stay still, observe, take photos.  If you have pets or children with you, move them away from the snake before you take photos.  Do not put them or yourself at risk.  Use this as a learning experience of how to behave around wildlife.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, June 18, 2017.  Tail enlarged from previous photo, verdict: Gopher Snake.  The neighbor proclaimed, " If it eats gophers, it's my new best friend!"

The last report of rattlesnakes in the neighborhood was from the early 1980s before our part of Silver Lake was completely built out. Before automated trash pick up, the City workers who picked up the trash cans said they found them underneath the cans in the early mornings in our hillsides.  However, there are definitely rattlesnakes in Griffith Park, and there is enough natural habitat in Elysian Park to suggest they exist there too, so there is always the possibility they are in the hills of eastern Silver Lake.  (People did not believe we had foxes and bobcats until we confirmed both with multiple sightings and photos.)

Learn more about Rattlesnakes and Gopher Snakes as well as other reptiles and amphibians:  California Herps

Click here for all our snake posts.

Red Car Canyon Adjacent: Gopher Snake Pretending To Be A Rattlesnake

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, May 28, 2015.  A rather large snake was lurking in the bushes outside Vandiveer's home office yesterday.  His cat kept trying to play with it.  After Vandiveer pushed the cat in the house, he was able to shoot some photos.  

As Gopher Snakes will do,  this one was shaking its tail and rattling the bushes trying  to scare off Vandiveer, a potential predator.  Unfortunately, Vandiveer was unable to capture the masquerade on video.  However, if you look closely at the photo, both the head and the tail are in the lower third of the shot, definitely a Gopher Snake.

I've noticed gopher snakes actually make more noise than rattlesnakes in Los Angeles.  The urban environment is just too loud in places like the Hollywood Hills to hear actual rattle on a rattlesnake.  The technique must work for the Gopher Snakes.  Vandiveer only learned its true length when it slithered away, easily a 6-foot snake.  It has been eating well in the neighborhood.

Gopher Snakes eat gophers, rats and mice.  A rattlesnake has not been documented in the Red Car Property neighborhood.  They do live in Griffith Park.  You should not attempt to touch or handle any wildlife. 

May is traditionally a big time for Gopher Snake sightings in the neighborhood. Click here for all our snake related posts.

Learn more about gopher snakes: CalHerps

Unexpected Wildlife Encounters: In 2008, It Was A Fox. More Unusual & Just Plain Strange Neighborhood Wildlife

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 2008. Gray fox. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Today's Eastsider story on the bobcat found on the 2 Freeway just off Corralitas Drive, got us thinking about all the other out of the ordinary wildlife encounters we've highlighted on this blog. 

I lived in the neighborhood for 18 years before I saw a gray fox - living not far from where the bobcat was recovered on the 2 Freeway.  More than a dozen neighbors witnessed the fox on different parts of the street, day & night over a several week period in 2008.  (The fox is alive but asleep in the above photo - it was having running dreams like a dog has - all 4 feet were moving.)  See all our fox related posts.

Sometimes you only know what lives in the neighborhood once it turns up dead...

Photo: C.Weir, 2009.
A Ring-necked snake turned up for the first time in Red Car Canyon in 2009.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 2011.
A blue-green bee should not have been surprising since we'd seen a green bee in 2010.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 2012.
A scary looking alien type bug turned out to be an Angle-Winged Katydid.

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, 2008. No, that's not MOTHRA! with a 7" wingspan, but a Black Witch Moth Vandiveer found on his doorstep.

Then there's the unexpected...

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 2014.
Giant Swallowtail Butterflies suddenly appeared on Corralitas last summer.

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, 2009.
Vandiveer documented Slender Salamanders for the first time just off Red Car Canyon.

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, 2011.
While not the first daytime Great Horned Owl sighting in the neighborhood, it was the first documented daytime sighting on the Red Car Property.  See all our owl related posts.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 2013.
Red Car Canyon was the site of Cooper's Hawk vs Great Horned Owl. 

Photo: Corralitas Neighbor, 2010.
Wonder why it took so long to document a praying mantis?  There's no way we'd have seen her in the wild.

Now for the just plain strange & scary...

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, 2013.  The male praying mantis can walk around for days after the female cuts his head off.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 2014.
The Tarantula Hawk is the stuff of nightmares, first documented on the Red Car Property in 2013. 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 2014. 
One of the strangest bugs I've ever encountered was the Green Lynx Spider, who looked like a refugee from the day-glo 1980s.

Riverside Place: Ring-Necked Snake

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, January 16, 2014.  "This little guy slithered right by my client's feet, quite a surprise. :)"  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Judging by the range maps on CaliforniaHerps, it's a San Bernardino Ring-Necked Snake.  They like moist environments like Red Car Canyon. If you've got a backyard pond, you might find these snakes in nearby leafy debris, as they hunt slender salamanders, small snakes, lizards, tadpoles, small frogs, worms, slugs & insects. 

But the really cool thing about this species is their defense mechanism.  Their underside is yellow to orange and red.  When threatened, they curl up exposing their colorful underside, emitting a noxious odor, suggesting to predators they might be toxic or at least, really unpleasant to eat. 

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, January 16, 2014.  I'll speculate it's a juvenile snake, as it is so tiny.  Vandiveer reports it was about 8-10" long, yet clearly not much wider than the key ring.  Adults are 11-16" long.   This is the tiniest one we've documented in the neighborhood.

Check out all our Ring-Necked Snake posts.

Really unique wildlife visits Vandiveer's yard.  In the past he brought us a Black Witch Moth, Headless Mantis & a pretty scary spider among many other sights around the neighborhood. 

Help researchers by reporting wild reptile & amphibian sightings.

Learn more about Ring Necked Snakes: CaliforniaHerps

Corralitas Drive: Dark Side Of Corralitas Attracts Reptiles

Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 9, 2013.  Do you see the last 5 inches of a pencil thin baby Gopher Snake speeding into the dry brush?  (Clicking on photo won't make it much better)

This evening, while walking the dog, we spotted a tiny little gopher snake sitting on the curb.  When my dog approached it sped off into the grass just as I got one quick shot with my phone.  I'd never seen such a tiny foot-long snake. 

This is the same section of the hill where another neighbor found a Ring-Necked Snake.

Red Car Property: Discovering Urban Wildlife

Photo: Juliett G., May 28, 2012.  The Red Car Property offers an place for kids to learn about urban wildlife.* (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Neighbors are still writing City Councilmember Eric Garcetti, opposing development on and supporting acquisition of the Red Car Property as a park....

Dear Council Member Garcetti,

Thank you for taking the time to help our neighborhood save the Red Car Property.

This endangered piece of green space is a incredible resource to our community.  Over the years it has give my children a place to discover nature, play hide and go seek and meet with friends in the in the open space.  Many pet owners in the community walk to this area to let pets socialize and meet the people who live, walk, in this community.  If it wasn't for the open space we would not know our neighbors!

Sincerely

[Corralitas Neighbor]

In case you missed it, City Councilmember Garcetti appears to be supporting the community effort to acquire the Red Car Property as a park: Curbed LA

*In an earlier post, we noted the teenager in the above photo has been handling snakes since he was a young child.  We do not condone the handling of wildlife. 

Red Car Canyon: Gopher Snake

Photo: Juliett G., May 28, 2012.  Juliett's son found a 4 - 5' long, fat, healthy Gopher Snake in the center of the path entering Red Car Canyon.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

A Gopher Snake this size is a sign of a healthy environment.  After checking out the snake, he released the it on the nearby slope, away from the path. 

Juliett's son has been handling snakes and reptiles since he was a young child.  They identified the snake before he picked it up.  

We do NOT recommend you handle any wildlife you find in the neighborhood.  In the past there have been unconfirmed reports of rattlesnakes on the 2 Freeway end of the Red Car Property.  Those reports may have just been Gopher Snakes coiled up and shaking the nearby weeds with their tails, imitating a rattlesnake.   

May and June are prime months for snake sightings in the neighborhood.  Click here for all our snake posts. 

Learn more about California snakes on Cal Herps.

Corralitas Drive: Watch Your Step

Photo: Esteban Gonzalez, May 4, 2012.  Gonzalez was taking a walk and caught sight of this tiny, foot-long Gopher Snake, perfectly camouflaged among the leaf litter.  (Click on on photo to enlarge.)

Gopher Snakes are not poisonous.  They eat gophers, rats, mice, birds and their eggs.  It seems every May we get a lot of gopher snake sightings. It may be they are disturbed by brush clearance and are looking for cover, or it's just a time of year they are more active.  We've even seen the Red Tail Hawks bringing small snakes to feed the babies in the nest this past week.

Learn more about Gopher Snakes: California Herps

Click here for all our neighborhood snake posts.



Corralitas Drive: Slow Down, Snake Crossing!

Photo: Esteban Gonzalez, May 11, 2011.  Gonzalez was driving onto Corralitas from Rosebud around 11:30 AM and stopped his car, grabbed his cell phone and shot a series of photos of the  2 1/2 to 3' long Gopher Snake crossing the road.  (Click on photo to enlarge - you can even see the snake's tongue.)

Photo: Esteban Gonzalez, May 11, 2011.  The recent brush clearance on the slope across from the freeway has been attracting predators with an ample supply of rats and gophers.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

 

Photo: Esteban Gonzalez, May 11, 2011.  Gopher Snakes have excellent camouflage for the dry slopes.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Hopefully, the camouflage will help it escape the hawks nesting 100' away at Rosebud and Allesandro.  This is the same part of the street where, just last Sunday, I watched both hawks sitting 25' apart on the telephone wires, intently staring the freshly cleared slope for some tasty prey.  

See all our neighborhood snake photos.

Red Car Canyon: San Bernardino Ring-Necked Snake *updated with photos

Photo: Todd H., April 11, 2011. A Corralitas neighbor of Red Car Canyon found this little snake under a piece of cardboard that blew into his yard. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

San Bernardino Ring-Necked Snakes (Diadophis punctatus modestus) seem to like Red Car Canyon. It's ideal habitat for snakes that prefer moist habitats, preying on worms, slugs, and small reptiles, particularly Slender Salamanders. When he found the snake, a salamander was just a few feet away.

This is only the second San Bernardino Ring-Necked Snake a neighbor has sent to me in the last couple of years. (There's a video on the CalHerps website showing just how fast the snake moves, which would explain why we don't see them very often.) Luckily this one is still alive. The last one had been killed by a cat.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 4, 2011. A couple of neighborhood kids got to check out the snake up close. The snake will curl up and reveal its colorful underside as a warning to predators that it does not taste good. Since Todd was having brush clearance done today, he carefully placed the snake in a bucket with some grass and released him when the work was done.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 11, 2011. The snake's olive color provides excellent camouflage in the leaf matter in the canyon.

Corralitas Drive: Baby Snake

Photo: Cliff Watson, October 26, 2010. A neighbor found what appears to be a foot-long, baby Gopher Snake on his driveway last week. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Unfortunately, this Gopher Snake probably didn't make it for long, once the neighbor released it into a nearby vacant lot. It had some small, cat-sized puncture wounds near its head.

Judging by the plethora of gopher holes in the hillsides this year, the Gopher Snakes must have had a breeding frenzy. We had way more sightings than usual this year.

Corralitas Drive: Baby Gopher Snake

Photo: Shawnda Thomas Faveau, summer 2010. In May this year, there were a rash of snake sightings near the Corralitas Public Staircase. Shawnda captured this image of baby Gopher Snake in her yard. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Corralitas Drive: Another Dead Snake Mystery

Photo: Esteban Gonzalez, July 23, 2010. Unidentified dead snake found on Corralitas Drive, about 20 feet uphill from the base of the Corralitas Public Staircase. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

The neighbor who sent this photo, shot with his cell phone, saw no signs of what killed the snake. There were no obvious puncture wounds. It was not hit by a car. It's possible a hawk dropped the snake, as another neighbor witnessed in 2008.

Earlier this summer, there were a number of snake sightings near the Corralitas Public Staircase. There are also a lot of gopher holes on the hill. Perhaps neighbors with their the snake-killing cats have moved away, increasing the population of snakes surviving to feed on gophers.

Corralitas Public Staircase: Gopher Snakes*

Corralitas Public Staircase, 2nd landing, May 26, 2010, 10:45 AM.

A neighbor sent an email this morning with this photo of a beautiful, 3'-long, gopher snake. The neighbor also said there was a second snake, about the same size, in the grass adjacent to the staircase, just below this snake. It is unusual to have snake sightings this late in the day. The mild weather must be contributing to their activity.

Gopher snakes are generally harmless and should be left alone to help control the gopher, rat and mouse populations. We've had a few snake sightings on Corralitas in the past few weeks.

There are recent reports of rattlesnake sightings in Elysian Park, see: The Eastsider LA.

Keep sending us your neighborhood wildlife encounter photos: redcarproperty@gmail.com.

*UPDATE June 1, 2010: another neighbor saw a 2 1/2 - 3' gopher snake near the same part of the Corralitas Public Staircase, around noon today.

Corralitas Public Staircase: RIP Snake

Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 15, 2010. Top of Corralitas Public Staircase, 6:24 PM. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Looks like the 2-foot long snake fell victim to a bird of prey or some other predator. The head had been ripped off and there were talon-sized puncture wounds in the dead snake. See also: Snake vs Hawk.

Indeed the Corralitas Public Staircase is living up to its dangerous reputation.

Rosebud Ave: Snake Sighting

Photo: L. Montgomery, May 8, 2010, 12:45 PM. Snake Under the 2 Freeway on Rosebud Ave. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

This afternoon, while driving under the 2 Freeway on Rosebud, neighbors spotted a 3 - 4' long snake crossing the road. L. Montgomery shot this photo with a cell phone. Montgomery writes in an email, "When it saw us it curled up and I think it was trying to shake his/her tail. Don't worry, this pic isn't taken very close."

Gopher snakes will curl up and shake their tails when threatened, imitating rattlesnakes. Because the lighting conditions are poor under the 2 Freeway, it's hard to tell what kind of snake this is. It is most likely a gopher snake.

If you come across a snake, it's best to leave it alone (after you snap a few photos for us). Both rattlesnakes and gopher snakes help control the rodent population. In the past, rattlesnakes have been reported on the Corralitas end of the Red Car Property.

For a good photo index of snakes see: www.CaliforniaHerps.com.

Send us your photos and stories of neighborhood wildlife encounters: redcarproperty@gmail.com. Do not attempt to feed or pet wildlife.

Corralitas Drive: Flat Snake

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 11, 2009. 10" long gopher snake found dead on Corralitas. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 11, 2009. Rest in peace little snake. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

We Know What Scares You: Snakes

Photo: C. Weir, October 27, 2009. Underside of a San Bernardino Ring-necked Snake (Diadophis punctatus modestus) found dead on October 23. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Sometimes, the only way to learn if a species lives in the neighborhood, is to find a dead one. (We do not condone killing snakes, as they are a vital part of our ecosystem.) Weir found the already dead snake at the end of Riverside Place where the path leads to the Red Car Property. Weir said the snake had bite-mark puncture wounds (photo below). The snake is about a foot long and a half-inch in diameter.

Weir thinks it is a San Bernardino Ring-necked Snake. Cal Herps confirms it and continues, Ring-necked snakes are "mildly venomous, not considered dangerous to humans." When threatened, the snake coils its tail like a corkscrew; exposing the brightly colored underside; sending the message to predators, "Do not eat!"
Photo: C. Weir, October 27, 2009. The gray-green back of the San Bernardino Ring-necked Snake helps it camouflage in moist habitat, like Red Car Canyon. (Click on photo to enlarge for excellent detail in the scales.)

Ring-necked Snakes prey on worms, slugs and small reptiles, particularly Slender Salamanders, which are found both on the Red Car Property and in backyards on Riverside Place. They also eat tadpoles. In El Nino years, tadpoles appear in the vernal pools in Red Car Canyon. So be on the lookout for these small snakes on cloudy days, at dusk and after dark.

See photos of live San Bernardino Ring-necked Snakes on Cal Herps.

This week, we're counting down to Halloween with scary stuff from the 'hood. If you have photos of neighborhood reptiles, bugs, birds or mammals send them to us: redcarproperty@gmail.com.

Gopher Snake on Corralitas Drive

Upon reading the subject line, "Snake on Corralitas," in an email from a neighbor, I thought, "Don't these developers ever learn?" But I was pleasantly surprised to see a photo of a beautiful 3-ft long gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer).

My neighbor found the snake in the cul-de-sac atop Corralitas Drive. Gopher snakes are not poisonous. They eat gophers, rats and mice. You often see small snakes that have been hit by cars in the street at this time of year. They crawl out onto the street to warm up in the morning.

www.CaliforniaHerps.com has a good photo index and info on native snakes and other reptiles. Also see last year's: "Snake vs Hawk."

Photo: Benjamin Harvey, March 18, 2009. Gopher snake at the top of Corralitas Drive.

Send us photos of your urban wildlife encounters in the Corralitas Red Car Neighborhood. Include your name, date and approximate time of photo and what the animal was doing at the time of observation: redcarproperty@gmail.com.