April 16, 2008

 

A Reluctant Courtship of Snakes

 

by Debbie Viess

 

As the mushroom season winds down here in the Bay

Area, I must turn to other aspects of the natural

world for my biological thrills. A brisk walk through

the greening landscape of Huckleberry Preserve

yesterday brought me the pleasure of many interesting

natural history sightings: our enormous, resident

Golden Eagle, blazing gold across her back, and

perched high above Round Top, putting her feathers to

rights, and surveying her domain; a parent Bewicks

Wren carrying a fat, green caterpillar for its

incessantly hungry young, and the loud (and louder

yet, due to the increased ambient noise in our not so

natural world) and frantic songs of territorial birds

everywhere.

 

Color has returned to the landscape in the form of

many newly bloomed flowering plants: the first of the

purple and blue and yellow Doug Iris, delicate, pink

Star Flowers, scattered by the handful across

the ground, and the pure white, incised petals of the

Woodland Star, waving proudly upon their long and

delicate stalks.

 

As I passed by a gently rising bank, I heard a quick,

heavy-bodied scuttle in the leaf litter. No bird or

mammal greeted my eye, and temps were certainly warm

enough for substantial reptiles (judging from the

explosion of lizard activity that I observed in the

Botanical Gardens on Saturday). I peered more closely

at the ground by my feet.

 

Yes! There was a handsome garter snake, loosely coiled

and frozen in place. As I gazed at her and thought of

a number of clever sssss alliterations to tell the

tale on the morrow, my eye was caught by another

movement, right on cue: here came a second snake over

the rise, slithering down towards the first. The

"frozen in response to my presence" female remained

motionless while the more slender and differently

colored male jerkily made its way towards her (the

male was striped only with dull yellow, while the

female also had dull orange stripes along her sides).

 

Following a scent trail, he came nose to nose with her

unresponsive form, then, still pointed downward while

she looked up, came alongside and pressed his jaw

against hers! They remained frozen together like this

for several long minutes, then he continued his

undeterred explorations by flicking his tongue along

her flank as he slid ever downward.

 

The fat female remained frozen, but the oblivious male

took advantage of his good fortune to press his case.

A small movement on my part caused him to halt his

attentions and disappear into the leaf litter. Perhaps

I merely interrupted an ongoing courtship, or perhaps

this male took advantage of a non-moving,

captivatingly scented female for a bit of undeterred

reptilian foreplay?

 

I'd say all signs point to Spring.

 

Debbie Viess