Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson LI · Topic 5: Reptile study
51. The water snake
Goal: Your child can describe where water snakes live, what they eat, and how they swim and bask, from a safe distance.
You'll need
- Binoculars
- A pond, stream, dam or dock where snakes bask on rocks or branches
- A field guide or app for your area's snakes
- Nature notebook
What's in the book
The leading thought (it lives by streams because its food lives in and about water), the method (better to watch it in its native surroundings, since it uses the same place year after year) and six questions about where it is found and its size, its food and hunting, swimming and diving, colors and the young, its favorite sunning place, and winter. A passage from Thoreau's journal about a big water adder follows.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Late spring through early fall, on sunny rocks, logs, dams and branches over water. Comstock's teacher's story says a water snake usually has a favorite basking place and returns to it year after year, so once you find one, you can come back.
Safety: never pick up or touch a wild snake, even one you think is harmless; watch from at least two big steps away and let it go on its way. Before you go out, learn which venomous snakes live where you live (rattlesnakes, copperheads, cottonmouths or coral snakes in parts of the United States), and look before you put hands or feet under logs, rocks or into tall grass. Water snakes bite readily if bothered. In the Southeast they are easily confused with the venomous cottonmouth, so keep well back from every snake near water. An adult stays close by near the water too.
Keep the big idea in mind
Read this to yourself:
The water snake haunts the banks of streams because its food consists of creatures that live in and about water.
Comstock agrees that "it will be better nature-study to get the children to observe it in its native surroundings."
Find a basking spot
Scan the rocks and low branches with binoculars.
Where is the water snake found? How large is the largest one you ever saw?
Does each water snake have a favorite place for sunning itself?
Food
Why does the water snake live near water? What is its food? How does it catch its prey?
Comstock's teacher's story says it eats mostly frogs, salamanders and fish, catching them by chasing.
Swimming
Describe how the water snake swims. How far does its head project above the water when swimming?
Colors
Describe the markings and colors of the water snake. How do these colors protect it from observation?
Thoreau noticed the bands showed clearly in the water but looked almost plain brown out of it.
Put it into words
Ask your child why this snake lives where it does. Then share the leading thought.
Nature notebook
Draw the water snake on its basking rock, with the water line. Mark the place on a little map so you can check it again.
Afterwards
Visit the same basking spot on a few sunny days. Is the snake there? At what time?
Tip
Comstock hoped boys would see the water snake as "a more interesting creature for study, than as an object to pelt with stones." Talk about leaving snakes in peace.