Posted on 05/30/2013 9:55:26 AM PDT by Clint N. Suhks
WASHINGTON - They're not on a plane, but snakes in a tree could still be scary -- especially when they're spotted in D.C.
DCist says an email in an Adams Morgan Yahoo Group by a D.C. police sergeant discussed snakes falling out of trees at Walter Pierce Park in Northwest.
The posting was reported by the website PoPville and reads:
"On Thursday, May 23, 2013 around 11:40am a call came in about a couple of snakes that fell out of the trees. When the snakes fell they scared the children, and everyone fled. This was in the playground area. I responded but found no snakes. I caught one small enough to fit inside an empty water bottle I had. It was probably a black rat snake. They are indigenous to trees and the warm weather is drawing them out."
Albimar Cuadrasleal, a painter who sometimes does work at a building near the park, tells WTOP the snake sighting occurred around the time when he was parking his car last Thursday.
He says he heard a commotion at the park, and helped remove about six children from the area. He says women at the park said the snake came out of a tree, and he took this cellphone video of a snake in a playground at the park:
Cuadrasleal estimates the snake was about 4 feet long, and says he saw a smaller snake come out of a tree at the park about a week earlier.
The police officer who responded to the park for the snake sighting also tells WTOP he took the smaller snake he found to the National Zoo, where it was identified as a northern brown snake.
PoPville notes that the National Zoo says black rat snakes tend to be shy and will avoid confrontation if possible. They are not venomous, kill their prey by constriction and often will climb trees.
The zoo says some of the adult snakes also will "attempt to protect themselves."
"They coil their body and vibrate their tails in dead leaves to simulate a rattle," the zoo says. "If the snakes continue to be provoked, they will strike."
The Northern brown snake, meanwhile, also is non-venomous. Its prey includes worms and slugs.
You might want to check out this site:
Very carefully?
Fascinating. Thanks. The mention of the specular melanistic copperhead is a distinct possibility. All the more reason to admire nature from a respectful distance.
With respect, I believe that you have been misinformed.
A friend and me had a copperhead drop out of a tree and into our canoe while on the Potomac about a dozen miles above Great Falls, talk about excitement.
Whenever I see a snake on a tree branch, my first thought is water moccasin.
Hmmm. I did a little research; what I found says that the poisonous black snake claim is a myth, and in fact, venomous snakes don’t breed with non-venomous ones.
Sure is. Here’s a link to it on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/DT364-Snake-A-Way-Snake-Repelling-Granules/dp/B00002N648
A number of places carry it. The smell is mostly moth balls. We have a fish pond with Koi and we use that as well as some netting around the base. Works pretty good.
Were they heard to say “Don’t tread on me”?
LOL! So how many times did you two accidentally hit each other with canoe paddles while trying to hit the snake? I’ve been all over Africa from Cairo to the Cape. The only time I saw a snake, he was either dead or in the process of being dead. Locals made no distinction between “good” or “bad” snakes. They whacked them all.
The fools probably thought it was a flexible gun barrel and went berserk.
Snakes in the trees at D.C. park ... Snakes in Trees are the least of the reptile problem in DC. I am thinking Snakes in government buildings are more worrisome
Snakes look for snacks in trees, where birds nests can usually be found this time of year.
I ain’t afeared of no snakes. ‘Cept the two-legged democrat types.
It’s mating season for all the lawyers in DC.
priceless!
Geez! I’ve got a standing offer locally of $20 for any large non-poisonous unharmed snake. So far no takers. I’ll even catch them.
A few years ago I got one for free out of a man’s living room. I thought he was going to have a heart attack.
Had a similar experience on the Norfork River in the Ozarks, except it was a water moccasin.
Very exciting for a while, especially because it was a rather fast section of the river.
It eventually went over the side.
Glad to hear it. Now, about those water moccasin-pit bull hybrids...
I live on a rural piece of property in northern Missouri and it’s not that uncommon to come across copperheads and rattlers. So my preferred way of observing snakes is at long distace through the sights of my Ruger .22.
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