I took some pictures while we were out herping yesterday, but I currently have no way to upload them to a computer. (This goes back to the stolen-laptop situation.) So, in lieu of photos, I give you a story...

The guys and I were coming back to the garden, where Lisa was, and there was a big group of kids and parents looking around in the stream. I remembered that there had been a green treefrog resting on the garden fence, so I decided to go get him and do some public outreach. So I brought him down to the stream and showed him to the kids, and then I got out a red-spotted newt that we had caught earlier and showed him off, and then, just as they were leaving, I caught a real pretty green-phase cricket frog. So I let the kids see him as well. Then they left.

I was just about to get a couple cricket frogs posed for Lisa to take photos when I thought I heard one of the kids yell "SNAKE!" from down the trail. So I grabbed a snake hook and took off after them. When I got there, I said, "Did I hear someone yell 'snake'?" And one of the guys said, "Yeah, he just went under that railroad tie. He was about 3 feet long, green on top with a yellow belly."

At any other time, I would have been thrilled with the opportunity to get a green snake, but I was all psyched up for cottonmouths yesterday (and still hadn't seen one at this point), so I was kind of disappointed. Still, a green snake is a good one to show off 'cause they're so pretty.

So I rolled over the railroad tie... and there was a big fat black kingsnake. Now, I have to give the guy credit for not overestimating his size like most people do. (He was about 3 feet long.) But how in the world did that thing look green? The entire back and sides were jet black. There weren't even any yellow markings like you usually see on black kings.

Anyway, Lisa got some pictures of him (I didn't), and she said I could put them up here once she gets them up to her Webshots page. He was a really pretty snake.

But he wasn't green.