Apologies to ophidiophobes for today’s post…

I was taking apart some old garden fencing at the Miles’s place this afternoon, finding all manner of interesting bugs between layers of boards, but I was quite surprised to find a vertebrate hiding out about 18 inches off the ground.

I learned that it’s a smooth green snake, Opheodrys vernalis, a species of special concern in New Hampshire.  I didn’t want to cause it any harm when I dismantled the fencepost it was inhabiting, so I encouraged it to move along.

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This snake is caught in a bit of a catch-22, as its decline is partly attributed to loss of open grassland habitat, but both grazing and mowing, the primary ways of keeping land from reverting to forest, can kill it.  Seems that cute and green is only protective for Muppets.