O man! I caught a snake yesterday that I have never seen before. This is a yellow bellied racer. I wasn't sure but by it's behavior my instinct screamed racer. I found a blog done by an
avid snake lover and he knows tons about almost everything in utah. It is so cool http://snakeadventures.blogspot.com/
so I emailed him pictures and he confirmed my thoughts with a more specific name. This one is just a baby, a hatchling probably not more than a month or so old. It was "racing" across the cover of our pool and I grabbed it's tail a couple times until it stopped to face me. It struck a couple times but never got anything. I grabbed it and rushed it home to stick it in my snake box until I could identify it. SO FUN!!! It was trying to crawl up it's own body to bite my hand! Crazy! I have never held such an aggressive snake! It was kind of exciting. I got away with not being bit but my neighbor wasn't so lucky! Anyway, enjoy the pics. It was a fun way to end the good weather. Hopefully I can get off my butt and get out in the hills and find some more stuff. These snakes turn a solid sage green/blue color at one year old with a banana yellow belly, crazy transformation. I had a really hard time identifying it.
This is the baby I caught.
This is an adult yellow belly. The change is amazing.
