[EBB Sightings] A Reluctant Courtship of Snakes (and a few bird sightings, too)

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