Opheodrys aestivus
Linnaeus, 1766
Franklin Co., Missouri. May 7, 1976.
I often wonder how many hundreds of these beauties have I unknowingly walked past over the years? They can be hard to spot in the willows and bushes where they spend their time, but are easy to see outside their preferred habitat, and they also stand out in the beam of a flashlight after the sun goes down. They can be quite common in some places, and once you get a ‘search image’ for green snakes, they start popping out of the landscape. See the old herp journal An Ordinary Day With Green Snakes for an account of a very good green snake day. The two aestivus pictured here are Illinois specimens.
My Flickr album for this species is here.
HerpMapper records for this species are here.
