#Storeria dekayi

[futurebird]

It's spring time in New York City!

It's spring time in New York City! Yesterday it felt as if the whole city had come alive. Tulips and daffodils bloom, the moss on the old stone wall caught droplets of morning due. On my way to the bus stop in the South Bronx I encountered a DeKay's brown snake on the sidewalk near the park, the cute little snake was sunning itself after a long winter underground.

Gently, I picked her up (I had a look at the tail and I think it is a female) and moved her to a nice warm rock away from foot traffic. This is the first snake I've ever seen in NYC and it's my favorite species!

I’ve wanted to have a Dekay’s brown snake a a pet forever— I think a terrarium with Storeria dekayi and carpenter ants would be amazing— but if she now lives in the park I can go see her there.  Even better. She eat snails, slugs and worms and lord knows we have those over by that wall. I suspect there is one of NYC’s many secret buried streams and brooks under the wall in the park. It’s so moist all of the time.   Some of the local teens on their way to school and stopped to admire the snake. They were a little scared at first "oh no she's got a snake!" but I was able to tell them a little about the snake and how they are harmless and a sign that our little local park is doing well ecologically. 

Later this same day I was walking down Park Ave. down on the upper east when out of the corner of my eye I spied an ant queen. I can always tell ant queens by the way they walk... or rather waddle. Looks like Prenolepis imparis, or the American winter ant. She was hustling along the side walk as if on her way to the Chanel store. Now she’s in one of my luxury ant condos— (but don’t tell her I’ve moved her out to the Bronx.)     

I fed her a drop of sugar water which she accepted, now she is in my ant drawer snug in her test tube. I will post updates about this queen, and if she makes it. Over on Mastodon I asked for help naming her and we decided to call her "Ethel." I've never kept this species before, so I'm reading about their needs.

Ethel is cute & round, settling in to her "Luxery ant condo" (It's a test tube.) She enjoyed a little sugar water, now she's in the darkness of the ant drawer. She looks very well-fed, so I think there is a good chance she will lay lots of eggs.

In four or five days I'll check on her again. Sometimes new queens just die. So, many don't like to name a queen until she has her first workers. But I'm cheering for this little urban ant.

[frodisvictor]

I see this guy several times a week he lives under this cool piece of wood he's like a friend to me

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Dekay's brown snake (Storeria dekayi)

(Image credit: Getty Images)

[wildflowers-of-southern-ontario]

Dekay’s Brownsnake Storeria dekayi Colubridae

Photographs taken on October 11, 2021, at Rattray Marsh Conservation Area, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

[aardwolfpack]

I’ve only seen snakes in the wild a handful of times in my life, and yesterday was the first time I managed to photograph one.  You can toggle between the pictures to watch the flicking tongue.

[crevicedwelling]

cooler darker day than the past week so this young Storeria dekayi was a little sluggish, but awake enough to threaten me (trying its best).

[herpsandbirds]

I don’t need an ID I just thought you would appreciate this extremely small guy (Central Michigan)

Snake ID: Michigan

Hello, yes, this is a Dekay's Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi), family Colubridae. They feed mainly on slugs, snails, and earthworms.

[celestialmacros]

DeKay's Brownsnake (Storeria dekayi)

April 24, 2024

Southeastern Pennsylvania

Finally found one of these common snakes. I'm terrible at finding herps. This is a small snake, about a foot long (30 cm) as an adult.

[shadowkira]

DeKay's brown snake

(Storeria dekayi)

[hazeriley]

DeKay’s Brown Snake

Storeria dekayi

One of my favorite snakes to find and photograph

[thedisablednaturalist]

Almost missed seeing this lil guy! He did not try to bite me at all.

DeKay's brown snake

Storeria dekayi

[zoology-time]

Dekay's Brownsnake, Storeria dekayi

[iprefertheicecapades]

Left Dekay’s Brownsnake (Storeria dekayi), Right Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis)

[infodumpingaboutnature]

TRIGGER WARNING: DECEASED ANIMAL

So this is a little sad, on my way home from work (I work as a sustainability educator at my university’s Environmental Education Center) I found a dead DeKay’s Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi). I don’t know how it passed away but this made me really sad since this species is on my list of animals that I wanted to see in the wild and the first specimen I found was dead. I don’t know how it passed but it did have a wound on its body so maybe a predatory bird killed it and then accidentally dropped it. While unfortunate, this is a part of life so I just moved it slightly off the path so that whatever wants to can eat it without getting stepped on (and so that no one accidentally would step on a dead snake)

DeKay’s Brown Snakes are cool because they are a super tiny species with adults only growing around 10 inches in length. They are members of the Colubrid family (the same family as Garter Snakes and Hognoses), however, unlike their rodent and amphibian eating relatives the DeKay’s Brown Snake is so small that they only prey on invertebrates like slugs, snails, and worms. Occasionally, they have been reported also eating isopods and millipedes but it is thought that this is most likely a case of accidental ingestion as they prefer to prey on soft-bodied invertebrates. The species was named after American zoologist James Ellsworth De Kay, who discovered the species, but their genus name of Storeria is in honor of zoologist David Humphreys Storer.

[crevicedwelling]

Storeria dekayi, ever-present but always charming. a nice plump one

they’re the sparrows of snakes, only boring to people who don’t look closely. something brown and beautiful that’s easy to find close to home