Order Serpentes - snakes

Mount Desert Island is home to 5 species in 5 genera in 1 family. Click on a link below or scroll down for more information.
   Colubridae (5 genera, 5 species)
      Diadophis punctatus - ringneck snake
      Lampropeltis triangulum - milk snake
      Liochlorophis vernalis - smooth green snake
      Storeria occipitomaculata - red-bellied snake
      Thamnophis sirtalis - common garter snake

Colubridae

Diadophis punctatus (ringneck snake). This photograph was taken by Carol Muth on 30 September 2008 on Frenchman's Hill Road in Town Hill (Bar Harbor).

Lampropeltis triangulum (milk snake). This photograph was taken by Don Lenahan on 1 July 2007 off the Eagle Lake carriage road on the west side of the lake (Bar Harbor).

Liochlorophis vernalis (smooth green snake). This snake was basking between Aunt Betty Pond and the carriage road (Bar Harbor) on 2 August 2009.

The following is excerpted from the Firefly Farm Nature Notes, a weekly, subscription-supported series of articles about natural history. For details, e-mail lhavsall@gmail.com. This article was written for Saint Patrick's Day, thus the green font. For wearin' o' the green, it's hard to beat the beauty and artistry of Smooth Green Snakes! Their grass-green palette is not just the simple chemistry of pigments but is created with a bit of smoke and mirrors ... well, at least with mirrors. Called iridophores, these skin cells, filled with shiny plates of guanine, reflect and scatter blue light upward. Sitting atop the iridophores are pigment-filled xanthophores. If you're Greek, not Irish, you'll recognize that xantho- means yellow. Blue light passing through yellow generates the lovely green. Sometimes green snakes are born with no yellow pigment and are blue! Like most pigments, yellows degrade after death, leaving the Smooth Green Snakes blue. The Smooth Green Snake, native across northern North America, is so named because it has glossy smooth scales, not keeled ones as does its southern relative, the Rough Green Snake. Its scientific name, Liochlorophis vernalis translates directly to "smooth green snake of spring". And indeed, they emerge in April, mate in spring or summer, females laying two clutches of 4–6 eggs. The eggs, laid in an abandoned rodent burrow or a rotting log hatch quite quickly for snakes, between 4 and 23 days depending on temperature. Green snake eggs can hatch so fast because the mother incubates them internally before laying. Babies hatch out olive-green or blue-green. Come fall, Smooth Green Snakes hibernate together, sometimes mixed with other species of snakes, in anthills and burrows. Smooth Green Snakes are a great insecticide, as they feed entirely on insects, spiders, centipedes and millipedes. As insectivores, they are particularly sensitive to chemical pesticides.

Thamnophis sirtalis (common garter snake). This photograph was taken on 25 June 2009 next to the trail that was once the Breakneck Road (Bar Harbor).