I found this yearling eastern milk snake near a stone wall.
Milk snakes are very valuable creatures because they eat mice. Being in the kingsnake clan they also eat snakes. The eastern subspecies in Massachusetts is supposedly the largest representative of the species. I’ve only seen a few on the property but am encouraged that they have shown up. I lay down sheet metal in areas where it will be warmed by the morning or afternoon sun in hopes that snakes will slide under it and soak up the warmth. That is a good way to find them.
Very cool! I love beneficial snakes like milk snakes. I appreciate my neighborhood’s profundity of stray or marginally-kept cats for the same reason; we don’t get many rodents around here, from what I can tell.
I would prefer a large snake population over even a single cat. Whenever a cat shows up in the neighborhood he kills Camera Girl’s clients at her bird feeders. I remember one very proficient ambush hunter that killed four blue jays in a day. I had to block up an old goat shelter that he was lurking in.