Little help ID'ing NorCal snake

NorCal 50+
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NorCal 50+
Edited Date/Time 9/30/2018 11:20pm
I was just sitting at a park bench with my 4 year old in a park near my house and looked down and this dude was nearly at our feet. She had just walked right over that spot and how she didn't step on it, I don't know. I am googling around. I jumped up and he just slithered off. Probably 2.5 feet long. [Edit- damn if it doesn't look like a rattler- but no rattle!]
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borg
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borg 9/22/2018 5:31pm
9/22/2018 5:31pm
Looks like a typical gopher snake to me. Unless it has a triangular shaped head that is.
borg
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borg 9/22/2018 5:33pm
9/22/2018 5:33pm
They are pretty bold and will even shake their tail like a rattler. Pretty much harmless though, unless you're a rat or a gopher. They get huge down here.
NorCal 50+
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NorCal 50+ 9/22/2018 5:44pm
9/22/2018 5:44pm Edited Date/Time 9/22/2018 5:45pm
Yep- finally found the Pacific gopher snake. Same triple marking down the side.
I'm new to the West and learning about western beasts. In Virginia it was black snakes everywhere. We dug a six foot snake skin out of our attic and I used to hear them slithering in the walls when I was sitting in my room as a kid.





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Nighttrain
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Nighttrain 9/22/2018 6:47pm
9/22/2018 6:47pm
NorCal 50+ wrote:
Yep- finally found the Pacific gopher snake. Same triple marking down the side. I'm new to the West and learning about western beasts. In Virginia it...
Yep- finally found the Pacific gopher snake. Same triple marking down the side.
I'm new to the West and learning about western beasts. In Virginia it was black snakes everywhere. We dug a six foot snake skin out of our attic and I used to hear them slithering in the walls when I was sitting in my room as a kid.





Hah! That must have been a creepy sound? Were the snakes there to eat mice in the attic? I live on a salt marsh where there’s an abundance of snakes and rats/mice. I’d rather have snakes in my walls than rodents with their human communicable diseases.
NorCal 50+
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NorCal 50+ 9/22/2018 9:23pm
9/22/2018 9:23pm
Nightrain- varmints! Come to think of it, I never saw a mouse in that house!
It was an old Virginia Victorian built in 1925- it could be creepy. The basement had this utility room with the furnace and it had a dirt floor and walls. Walls were full of snake holes. Black snakes. The previous owner, my aunt, walked out the door to find a copperhead on the back step one day.
One summer day I'm sitting on the front porch in an old easy chair and go in to get a drink. Come back out and huge black snake is halfway out of the bottom of the chair! Thing had been in there the whole time I was sitting there.
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dimetime
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dimetime 9/22/2018 11:32pm
9/22/2018 11:32pm
NorCal 50+ wrote:
Nightrain- varmints! Come to think of it, I never saw a mouse in that house! It was an old Virginia Victorian built in 1925- it could...
Nightrain- varmints! Come to think of it, I never saw a mouse in that house!
It was an old Virginia Victorian built in 1925- it could be creepy. The basement had this utility room with the furnace and it had a dirt floor and walls. Walls were full of snake holes. Black snakes. The previous owner, my aunt, walked out the door to find a copperhead on the back step one day.
One summer day I'm sitting on the front porch in an old easy chair and go in to get a drink. Come back out and huge black snake is halfway out of the bottom of the chair! Thing had been in there the whole time I was sitting there.
God damn that creeped me out. Good story.
rongi#401
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rongi#401 9/23/2018 8:52pm
9/23/2018 8:52pm
They're nice to have around, no rats or gophers
rhargrave431
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rhargrave431 9/25/2018 9:20pm
9/25/2018 9:20pm
My uncle lives in Louisiana, and about a dozen years ago he was on his computer and saw something move out of the corner of his eye. Turned, and it was a water moccasin laying stretched out on his living room floor. He ran and got a shovel, came back, and it was gone! He ended up finding it coiled up in his recliner. I would of burnt the house down personally!
peelout
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peelout 9/26/2018 8:49am
9/26/2018 8:49am
we have a version of these in Northern UT, i've always called them Bull Snakes. anyway i had a few living in my yard last year, big bastards. scared the living fuck out of me the first time i saw one and it was behind my outdoor garbage can and when i picked it up it coiled up, i screamed and ran like a little bitch. got a better look and no rattle, i left him alone and he helped keep the critters away.

i've actually heard they help keep rattlers out of the area, which is great because i'm right against the bench of a mountain range and rattlers are all over in the hills above me.
cjmx
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cjmx 9/26/2018 1:05pm
9/26/2018 1:05pm
peelout wrote:
we have a version of these in Northern UT, i've always called them Bull Snakes. anyway i had a few living in my yard last year...
we have a version of these in Northern UT, i've always called them Bull Snakes. anyway i had a few living in my yard last year, big bastards. scared the living fuck out of me the first time i saw one and it was behind my outdoor garbage can and when i picked it up it coiled up, i screamed and ran like a little bitch. got a better look and no rattle, i left him alone and he helped keep the critters away.

i've actually heard they help keep rattlers out of the area, which is great because i'm right against the bench of a mountain range and rattlers are all over in the hills above me.
it's a myth about bull snakes keeping rattlers away. I see both all the time mountain biking. I heard the same thing and researched it.
plowboy
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plowboy 9/26/2018 2:01pm
9/26/2018 2:01pm
I see hundreds of different species of snakes on tv, internet, and books but the only kind I've ever seen in person is the rattle headed copper moccasin. If I see him in the woods...I go home. If I see him in my yard he goes home to snake heaven.
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GeorgiePorgie 9/26/2018 2:02pm
9/26/2018 2:02pm
Almost stepped on a rattler in Texas pulling roving guard. Scared the shit out of me. That point on I never did guard without a red light and a white light....
Foghorn
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Foghorn 9/26/2018 4:53pm
9/26/2018 4:53pm
cjmx wrote:
it's a myth about bull snakes keeping rattlers away. I see both all the time mountain biking. I heard the same thing and researched it.
True. Kingsnakes do like to eat rattlers though.
Nighttrain
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Nighttrain 9/26/2018 9:21pm
9/26/2018 9:21pm
I was out road cycling and came across a juvenile rattlesnake slowly crossing a country road. While I was stopped to check it out a lady In a SUV pulled up behind me. She leaned out the window to say “get out of the way so I can run it over”. I told her to let it get to the grass because they eat a lot of rats. “Get your skinny f’ng ass out of the way or I’ll run you both over” was her response. The snake made it to safety and I laughed all the way home remembering the crazy look in the lady’s eyes. My logic set her off.
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GeorgiePorgie 9/26/2018 9:52pm
9/26/2018 9:52pm Edited Date/Time 9/26/2018 10:13pm
I guess juveniles can’t control their venom as well. He woulda shot you up with a lethal dose lol. You’re lucky. And on the other hand....snakes got a right to be Alive as well. Good on ya for letting him go about his way.
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NorCalRedRyder 9/29/2018 4:11pm
9/29/2018 4:11pm
Found this girl at one of our grow sites a couple weeks back, but it had to go. No way I'm risking one of my dogs getting bit. One of the workers coaxed him into a garbage can and took him down the hill. It was the one day I forgot my headphones at home, if I didn't it would have got me. I didn't notice it until I was 4 feet away.
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Jrewing
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Jrewing 9/30/2018 4:30am
9/30/2018 4:30am
Love snake threads. Coming into spring here so they’re coming out hungry, horny and blind. Mtb’ing is a different game now. Gotta carry the compression bandages now.
We get death adders, Eastern Brown, red belly black snakes. Plus others all where I mtbike.
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cjmx
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cjmx 9/30/2018 7:54am
9/30/2018 7:54am
Jrewing wrote:
Love snake threads. Coming into spring here so they’re coming out hungry, horny and blind. Mtb’ing is a different game now. Gotta carry the compression bandages...
Love snake threads. Coming into spring here so they’re coming out hungry, horny and blind. Mtb’ing is a different game now. Gotta carry the compression bandages now.
We get death adders, Eastern Brown, red belly black snakes. Plus others all where I mtbike.
This was last month, coming out of a blind corner. I had to brake hard. Didn’t want to let me cross. Finally a little water got it moving.
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MR. X
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MR. X 9/30/2018 8:48am
9/30/2018 8:48am
Fuck them nasty things
NorCal 50+
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NorCal 50+ 9/30/2018 11:20pm
9/30/2018 11:20pm
Around here, it's not "if" I see a rattler, it's "when." Whenever I walk around with my kid I am poking ahead with a big stick!

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