Okefenokee Gnats and Snakes: Southern Banded Watersnake

Photographer: William Wise | iNat Observation: 29933071 - Southern Banded Watersnake; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia. March 10, 2015. ©williamwisephoto.com

The most noticeable - or, I should say, most unavoidable - sight on the Trembling Earth Nature Trail in the Stephen C Foster State Park is the gnats; great clouds of gnats six feet in diameter, swarming at eye-level populate the boardwalk at certain times of the year. We pass through one cloud - swatting and waving our hands with eyes squinted and mouth shut tight - only to encounter another gnat cloud a few feet further down the boardwalk. Swatting did absolutely nothing; like trying to blow a path through thick fog with your mouth.

But I must thank the gnats. If it not had been for the gnats forcing my eyes to squint and face downward, I would not have noticed a quick movement below the boardwalk and a stirring of the tannin-stained blackwater swamp. “A snake!” my daughter shouts. (She is somehow always the first to spot the serpents on our wildness hikes.) Sure enough, down in the sphagnum moss slithered a Southern Banded Watersnake, Nerodia fasciata. One cool reptile was now on our Okefenokee checklist.

N. fasciata inhabits most freshwater environments such as lakes, marshes, ponds, and streams.
Banded water snakes are active both day and night and may be seen basking on logs or branches overhanging the water or foraging in shallow water. (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/29317-erodia-fasciata)

Posted on 07 August, 2024 10:44 by williamwisephoto