#banded watersnake

[william-snekspeare]

While I was kayaking a while back I saw a snake swimming across the river with a fishie he’d caught.

I wasn’t able to get a picture of it at the time so I tried to paint it from memory !

[charmwasjess]

Been kind of in a funk today and apparently what I needed was to go get platonically nude with my best friends in a waterfall and cook something over a fire

[erythristicbones]

Helped a friend cross the road safely today C: it's a Florida Softshell Turtle!

[broke-but-cozy]

Pretty, young broad-banded watersnake basking in an empty parking lot

[is-the-snake-video-cute]

Was looking at information about Broad Banded Watersnakes for fun (they're soooo cool looking) and I saw that they are prone to biting even though they aren't venomous. Are most watersnakes extra feisty? I never hear about "chill" watersnakes. Also, do nonvenomous watersnakes still suffocate their prey? How does that work with fish with no lungs? Do they actually have some bite-force?

Also, do you ever work with hot watersnakes in your venom lab?

Ty! :)

Watersnakes are awesome! They do indeed tend to be very feisty and bitey. Unlike a lot of snakes, who will try to flee or freeze in place, most every wild watersnake you try to pick up will bite you. Captive-bred ones are fine, though, and long-term captives (we have an unreleasable common watersnake at my wildlife center) are usually pretty chill.

Watersnakes aren't constrictors! Like a lot of colubrids who don't constrict, they rely on overpowering their prey. They have a pretty strong bite, but it's nothing to write home about - they rely on their strong muscles to overpower fish.

The genus of watersnakes, Nerodia, actually doesn't contain any hot snakes. Like I said, though, we have a watersnake at my wildlife center and he's lovely! He's been with us since he was a baby - he was involved in a lawnmower accident that thankfully healed up very well but resulted in a scar that restricts his mobility a bit, so he was deemed unreleasable. He's pretty nippy but otherwise he's a delight and he's always pretty chill once he's out of his enclosure.

[white-chalk-sapphomet]

I want to say southern or banded watersnake, but it's hard to tell for sure from my pictures...

[gently-morbid]

Patterned belly of a broad-banded watersnake killed by a raccoon

[innsjovide]

Alright this is quite a lot but I'm curious... 2, 7, 10, 11, 12, 19 for Sadihak?

oc ask game

its not too much! also im gonna do this with young gods sadihak instead of tourn sadihak unless the response would be extremely different between the two

2. what sort of music would they like? have you thought about what genres or bands do they lean towards? do they have a favorite song?

of the five savant, sadihak is the most well-versed in music. they're a trained vocalist, and an avid enjoyer of the performing arts (music and theater, because they're a musical theater bitch). Because of setting purposes, most of the music in young gods is old instrumental music, but if you were to put them in the modern day, sadihak would probably be a fan of most music. i think they'd especially like jazz

tourn sadihak listens to lady gaga, this is canon

7. favorite animal? why?

snakes! all the savant have animal associatations, and sadihak's is snakes. i'm just making that their default favorite animal because it's easy. the specific snake that is associated with sadihak is called the watersnake in universe, but it's just a fancier version of the real life water mocassin, which is a venomous, water-dwelling pit viper native to the marshy regions of the southeastern united states. i chose snakes for sadihak's animal because of their generally devious and sneaky reputation, and water mocassins because sadi has an association with water as well (and they live in a very marshy region of the young gods world)

10. if they wear jewelry, what kind? do they prefer silver or gold? do they have a favorite gem?

sadihak wears a lot of jewelry. on any given occasion, they can be seen wearing earrings, a choker, a pendant necklace, a waist chain, and bracelets. they only wear gold jewelry, since silver clashes with the white they often wear, and while i don't think they'd often wear jewelry with gemstones, i can see them wearing some tanzanite or aquamarine

11. what do they have in common with you? how are they different? would you get along with them?

sadihak is like me because we're both nonbinary bisexual disaster whores /j. in reality, sadihak gets alot of traits from me (tho not as many as some of the other savant). they're passionate about the arts, they're fun, they're a disaster. tho, i like to think i'm not as dramatic as sadihak. i would not get along with them in any universe i write them in and that's why i love them so much. they'd suck to be around.

12. how long have they been around? do you know their birthday? is their birthday the day you made them or another day? what do they think of celebrating birthdays?

sadihak was actually the last of the savant i created, and the last to be fully developed. i created them around late october 2021, tho their birthday is june 8th so they can be a gemini (disclaimer- months dont have the same names in young gods but im too lazy to come up with a calendar system on the spot). sadihak probably cares the most about birthdays of the savant (barring petrai, who only cares about them so she can track ages), but even then, they don't care much. it's nice to be celebrated, but also, once you've had twenty-five thousand something, they get a little boring. (and no one wants a reminder of how old you're getting)

19. are they quick to anger? what sets them off?

sadihak is, at least on the surface level, very slow to anger. if they're upset with something, they won't let it show. instead, they'll keep up a calm, relaxed facade. they're actually very quick to anger, and is actually upset about something at any given time, but they won't show it unless they're really pissed off (and even then, it's usually just a slip of the mask- its very rare they actually get angry at anyone). sadihak likes to keep their cool and appear on-top of things, even when it compromises their mental well-being. they're most upset when they feel they've been betrayed or disrespected.

tourn sadihak, adversely, is incredibly quick to anger and incredibly vocal about it. unlike their young gods counterpart, they don't have much to loose by being vocally angry, so they'll be mad at whoever they want, however they want. this often lands them in weird fights with weird teenagers, but that's not entirely their fault. they will often try to avoid confrontation if possible, but when they're pissed off, it shows.

ty for sending me one of these! i love doing them :] sadihak is one of my most beloved blorbos, they live in my brain rent free. feel free to send more if u want!

[rjalker]

I've observed 4 confirmed species of snakes so far:

2 banded watersnakes (1 dead) 2 eastern ratsnakes (both dead) 2 eastern copperheads (both dead) 1 rough greensnake (Very much alive)

[mothmanns]

floatin nekkid in the pond with a red solo cup of wine. banded watersnake swam by me and three pairs of tandem dragonflies landed on me which has gotta be good luck or somethin

[kingxfmischief]

[Had a nice last day of vacation. Saw a bunch of gators ranging from recent babies to big mommas, heard some large males bellowing which was intimidating. So happy with that. Saw some huge golden silk orb weavers at both places we went today. Had a steak lunch, had a massive Mason jar ice cream thing for basically dinner. Saw a banded watersnake that scared the shit out of my mom lmao

Idk great wildlife day.]

[lawrencejeffersonphotography]

Banded watersnake along the nature trail in Pearland!

[charmwasjess]

I feel like I took too many close up weird angle pictures of my arm and now I'm twisting in the throes of body dysmorphia but I REALLY want to show off my finished sleeve

yarrow, chicory, banded watersnake, cardinal flower, and male and female Io moth for my nb ass

[broke-but-cozy]

Juvenile broad-banded watersnake (Nerodia fasciata confluens)

[is-the-snake-video-cute]

Hello! I saw this little lad in the DFW area of Texas, and I was wondering if you could ID them. I know they're not one of the venomous lads we have here, but I'm not sure what they actually are. Hope you're having a lovely day, Thanks!

That's a very beautiful banded watersnake!

[weirdponytail]

Okay! Story time! (The Watersnake)

I promised a story on what Florida things happened yesterday and here you are. 

We have this spot in our backyard that has a couple of tires next to and against this big oak tree. There’s Creeper grasses growing over the tires, and next to them is this patch of Mondu(sp?) grass. Mondu grass is this thick grass that grows about 6-8 inches tall, droops a bit, it’s used a lot in decorative lawn stuff. Dogs love to gallomph through it. Tickles their belly I guess, but this patch in our backyard is kinda stunted due to the creeper vines that are around it.

Anyhoo, this spot is where I shot my first cottonmouth last year. Snakes like it because they can either hide in the grass, go under the tires, or slip into the spot between the tree and a leaning tire and piece of old fencing to get away from people or dogs. So if I hear Lexi, my big ol’ goof of a boxer/ridgeback doing an alert bark near here, I immediately grab whatever I can and get her to back up.

So of freaking course Lexi decides while I’m out wiht her yesterday to do two alert barks. I look over and see her doing the telltale ‘oh HI who are you?’ little head bob, leaning her head forward and pulling back a bit, rinse and repeat.

I grab a long piece of PVC pipe and speed walk over there not wanting to startle whatever she’s investigating and right as I come up and get to the point where I can see around the tire I see a big, thick body of a snake. 

It takes a split second for me to register that the body, while not thin like most non venomous snakes, had only dark bands on the top and fades to a reddish and tan color as it reaches its belly, a very good indication that this is NOT a cottonmouth as their color is fairly uniform in browns and blacks. However, and I had a good laugh about it later, I was wearing my heart rate watch and there’s a very sudden spike from 72 bpm to 139 bpm that was around the time I saw that snek body. 

I got that glimpse of the body and immediately looked for the head. And I saw it......

.....Right as Lexi leaned in again and, I shit you not, booped noses with the fucking snake. And it just...stayed there. If snakes could look confused this one would be wearing a ‘uh...the fuck?’ expression like it was a Prada handbag. 

I pushed Lexi back and she trotted off, apparently disinterested now, and I leaned in some more to get a look at the snake’s head to confirm it wasn’t venemous. It was nice enough to stay pretty still with its head raised, and it wasn’t even in striking position. I confirmed round pupils, correctly identified it as a harmless Banded Watersnake, and got a really cool view of it finally having enough of me staring and doing a defensive display of ‘flattening’ its head to make it appear broad like a cottonmouth’s. I backed up as it slithered into the Mondu grass, grabbed Lexi and brought her in.

Not long after that Dad and one of his biologist friends dropped by to pick some things up for a camping trip. The biologist was really excited about the snake and asked me to show him where it was, and I pointed it out to him. This guy swoops down and grabs the snake, getting pegged twice in the hand in the process, brings it close to his face to examine, confirms with me that it was a southern Banded, and then releases the now very pissed off snake back into the grass. While dad gathered stuff up the biologist and I had a lengthy and animated chat about the various snakes of the area, his stories of a childhood scooping up cottonmouths and indigos and ratsnakes alike, and just had a great time discussing some very Florida Wilds things.  

After they left I went back out myself in my welding gloves to see if I could either coax this poor snake out of our yard with a few gentle prods or if I could nab it behind the head and deposit it next to the creek behind the house. Lexi won’t ‘do her business’ when on a leash so she gets free reign in the backyard, and I didn’t want her killing the snake. It was deep in the mondu grass at this point and I couldn’t pull it out without a risk of it being injured, so I let it be and waited a few hours before going out again and watching it slither off under our fence into the woods at dusk. 

And there you have it! A bit of Florida weirdness! 

I’ll be really honest, I about pissed myself when I saw the snake’s body the first time. A bunch of stuff when through my head, including “and I was thinking in bed last night how I should take my rifle to get its broken sight fixed,” “oh fuck I’m wearing shorts and I’m barefoot,” and “Hhungk my chest ow heartrate what” but after a second it was pretty clear this guy wasn’t venomous and wasn’t even aggressive just...curious. He was very chill. 

And yes, Lexi is fine. Though I really really hope she doesn’t try to boop a snake ever again!