This snake was hanging out this afternoon in Millennium Park in West Roxbury, near where Sawmill Brook enters the Charles.
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This snake was hanging out this afternoon in Millennium Park in West Roxbury, near where Sawmill Brook enters the Charles.
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Comments
Looks scary, but just a
By Qestia
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 6:31am
Looks scary, but just a friendly harmless milksnake https://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/wildlife/profiles....
Northern Water Snake, not milk snake
By anon
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 10:19am
Milk snakes have smooth scales but this snake's scales are keeled (kind of a ridge running down the middle of each one). Also much more likely to encounter a water snake near water like at that location. Milk snakes prefer drier upland areas.
https://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/wildlife/profiles...
FB local groups and Nextdoor
By SwirlyGrrl
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 11:14am
At least once a year we get some report like this:
[picture of giant ass milksnake or eastern ratsnake]
Is this your pet? I found it in my driveway. If your snake escaped please come pick it up!
[giant snek as native snek education event ensues]
Harmless yes, milk snake, less certain
By Allstonian
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 11:36am
It looks like a water snake to me - heavier in the body, keeled scales, bolder stripes along the mouth, no stripe through the eye, and slightly different "saddle" spotting. Either way, certainly harmless.
Oh, please
By BostonDog
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 7:39am
Snakes are awesome and that's a nice photo. Consider yourself lucky for seeing one.
They pose no harm to humans in New England*, they are native, they eat mice and rats, and they are interesting to look at. They are great critters.
Unless you're a vole, enjoy native snakes.
*Yes, there is a very small population of Timber Rattlers in Western Mass. You won't find one in the Commonwealth and you won't be bit unless you make that your lifelong goal.
Blue Hills has rattlesnakes
By Parkwayne
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 7:47am
Unsure if the variety matters? To be clear, I agree with your overall sentiment in spite of all the fevered talk of water moccasins at the ponds when I was a kid.
Maybe a very few
By BostonDog
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 8:03am
It's possible there are a few Timber Rattlers in the Blue Hills but it's estimated there's only 200-300 in the state total with a vast majority in the woodlands further West.
To be scared of getting bit by a Timber Rattlesnake in the Blue Hills is akin to being scared of being hit by a car being driven by Mike Dukakis. I mean, it's possible.
Rattlesnake Cluster in the Blue Hills
By John Costello
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 9:04am
No where near Great Blue Hill.
The cluster is north of 128, east of Randolph Avenue, west of Wood Road behind where Haemonetics used to be.
You are not going to get bit by the GBH transmission tower.
yupp
By anon
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 9:44am
Pretty sure we found one at the property line of Granite Links several years back
https://www.wickedlocal.com
By Dave
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 1:30pm
https://www.wickedlocal.com/news/20180830/rattlesn...
https://www.universalhub.com/2018/braintree-becomi...
Possibly fewer now
By lbb
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 9:41am
I heard a story of some nutty guy who had made it his life's work (or at least a significant hobby) to eradicate rattlesnakes from the Blue Hills, and who would hunt them down and kill them, regulations be damned. Anyone else know of this?
Western Mass is the
By anon
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 10:14am
Western Mass is the Commonwealth.
?
By lbb
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 3:29pm
Are you missing your sippy cup?
Just posted in the wrong spot
By Allstonian
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 3:35pm
Nope, they just replied to the wrong comment. Anon is responding to BostonDog's first comment above:
2nd hand knowledge
By Parkwayne
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 10:32am
My kid was at the Blue Hills nature camp two years back and they saw one on a trail up there (confirmed by the counselors). This is over above Chickatawbut Rd.
Above = north?
By lbb
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 11:09am
On the north side or the south side of the road?
I used to hike the north side a lot - it was great, almost never anybody there. Plus I found a blueberry-huckleberry patch.
Somewhere up by the Norman Smith center
By Parkwayne
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 11:30am
So south of Chickatawbut, north of I-93
Why the attitude?
By perruptor
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 8:10am
Nobody was clutching any pearls, so why do you immediately take that attitude?
Oh, Please
By BostonDog
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 9:17am
I was playfully responding to the playful story headline.
Great Blue Hill
By Herp E. Simpleton
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 8:55am
I thought it was a small population of eastern copperheads in the Blue Hill area.
I doubt any timber rattlers as you do.
I was delighted to see a northern watersnake last month. Anything other than a ribbon or garter snake is exotic for me.
Both
By Allstonian
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 1:39pm
There are small populations of both copperheads and timber rattlers in the Blue Hills reservation.
Adorable!
By Katnip Evergreen
Tue, 07/20/2021 - 8:58am
n/t
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