Found on the road and sadly quite dead

Quick sketch Eastern Milk Snake

Found on the road in Smallwood, upstate New York: one sadly quite dead Eastern Milk Snake, or more simply put, Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum. 

I moved the creature to a safe spot not that it needed safety but more out of respect for the gorgeous body the snake possessed.  I took a few iPhone pictures and drew what I saw as you can see.  The Eastern milk snake is common to eastern and central North America and has many common names like adder, chain snake, cow-sucker, thunder-and-lightning snake and that all familiar blatschich schlange.  I get the “schlange” part of it I think.  The snake was about 24” long.  Spread out on the edge of the road, it looked like a necklace or Native American beaded decoration.  It is a sort of beigy tan with a pattern on the top and sides that is a series of black-bordered burnt sienna-colored patches of different sizes and shapes.  I didn’t turn it over but the belly is said to be irregularly checked black and white.  

The eastern milk snake is sometimes bred in captivity for people to own as pets.  According to Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_milk_snake, it is generally docile, but it can bite if threatened and if one is bitten, one should see a doctor.  It is not a venomous snake, but it is a carnivore and prefers a diet of mice, voles, chipmunks, other small rodents, and even other snakes.  It kills by constriction not by biting its prey.  It is an accomplished climber and has been known to climb porches and vines to enter homes in search of mice. The eastern milk snake vibrates its tail to rustle leaves and other debris or when it feels threatened.   Again, this may not be the ideal house pet for many people. Although there are those….

But one thing to be said it that it is a beautiful creature and when I happen upon something like this, I feel the need both to photograph it (thank goodness for our phone cameras) and to draw it in my sketch pad.  Doing the above quick drawing of it, I noticed the patterns even more clearly and appreciated the exquisiteness of this denizen of upstate New York.  I left the actual creature on the edge of the road thinking that it might be food for some other hungry creature or beauty for some passerby.