Eastern Milk Snake

I was helping a friend with some vehicle maintenance this weekend. He lives in the country. We needed a piece of wood for leverage, and when he went to the wood pile, he uncovered this little fellow.

It turns out that it's an Eastern Milk Snake. These guys are beneficial to us - when little, they eat insects, slugs and that sort of critter. When they get larger, they eat mice, which is better than having mice chew on your electric wiring!

It was a warm day, so this little guy was very active and it was hard to get a photo of him. Over about 10 minutes, he wiggled and squirmed and did everything in his power to get away, including trying to bite me. I say 'trying' because his tiny teeth were too small to break my skin! I felt a bit sorry for disturbing him for so long, so once I got his portrait, I put him back in the wood pile, safe and sound.

Good hunting buddy!

Here is some more information on the snakes of New York.