Day 132: Snakes at sea

As we walked through Smuggler Cove provincial park, Dawn lamented that she hadn't seen a snake all weekend. Within the next 100 m we saw two garter snakes swimming in the shallow water of the swamp. The swamp was created by beavers damming the creek and occasionally floods the trail, but today we had no problems with just a muddy puddle to avoid.

Down in the cove, I took advantage of the low tide and rock-hopped my way over to a small island where I startled another snake. At first look I wasn't sure it was a garter snake, on account of its markings, but a bit of reading at the BC reptiles website has me largely convinced I was looking at a northwestern garter snake. It darted across the water to hide in a small rock crevice, where my shadow duly persuaded it to move on. I followed it over the rocks for a while, and eventually managed to get a really good angle on it next to a few barnacles. The snake must have been barely 20 cm long, I'm guessing a youngster from this year.

Basking garter snake