Notes from the Hollow

Spring is here with a vengeance. All the signs: whip-poor-wills patiently calling, little bats jitterbugging in the dusk, ambitious vegetation slowly conquering the hollow… And, of course, snakes. Saw two yesterday. In a hurry, I stepped by a coiled black snake but did no more than glance at my ally, just noticing it wasn’t the big one. Later, driving up out of the hollow I encountered this long, thin snake blocking the road. It refused to budge when threatened by an automobile, perhaps stopped by caution, trying to yield to the large, noisy, smoke-belching beast. Or maybe it just doesn’t fear old, ugly Buicks. Though once again in a hurry, I climbed out to inspect this neighbor of the hollow. The cell phone pictures don’t do this beautiful reptile justice. About four feet long, it was slate gray with a yellowish belly. Not wanting to scare it off, I tried to use the zoom feature on the cell phone camera – thus the poor photographs.

Suddenly, down the hollow road, here came the dogs barking and carrying on, running as fast as they could. Why they were doing so has me puzzled. Surely it was much too far to know there was a snake. Anyway, the dogs were nearing so I leaned in close to the snake to take some close-ups. With amazing quickness, and I do not exaggerate, the snake’s head swung around toward me and it kind of feinted a strike and then as I suddenly found myself jumping back, it slithered at a speed I don’t think I’ve ever seen a snake obtain - across the road and up and over the bank and into the woods. Had I better nerves maybe I would have taken a pretty exciting picture of it raising up at me, but there really was no time.

Though the snake looked familiar, I had to search it out in the big The Amphibians and Reptiles of Arkansas. This long, sleek fellow was built for speed and had the name to go with it: Eastern Racer. The book mentions things like “fast-moving” and “highly agile” and “irascible disposition.” Irascible means “marked by hot temper and easily provoked anger.” That is according to my Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (I had to look it up.)

If you live in Arkansas I recommend you purchase a copy of The Amphibians and Reptiles of Arkansas and the Eastern Racer is a perfect reason why – there are four subspecies just in Arkansas and they all look a bit different. A smaller book just couldn’t hold all of the photographs and descriptions necessary for exact identification. If this year is like the last ten, I’ll see snakes fairly regularly in the hollow.