Snakes & Hares

Evvy and I took a trip up to the rocky top of Derry Hill Rd. which is part of the Britton Farm in Walpole.  There are some neat granite outcroppings there that probably once had excellent views.  Now though trees and their foliage block any view.  Most of the smaller granite rocks are near perfectly square like bricks.  On one outcrop, someone had painstakingly begun to create small shelter.   Wondering if I might find any snakes, I looked in the dark spaces between these rocks.  Sure enough, I found the shed skin of a snake not too far from a Ringneck Snake.  I borrowed the photo from J.D. Willson, and the following description of the snake from the NH Audobon website.  

Ringneck Snake (Diadophis punctatus) 
This small and slender species is, like the Brown and Redbelly, also quite secretive. Usually smaller than two-feet, the Ringneck is black, gray, or brown with a gold collar and a yellow belly. They prefer wooded areas with lots of cover in the form of logs and rocks and their diet consists of anything they can catch including salamanders, frogs, smaller snakes, earthworms and insects. The females lay 1 to 10 eggs in June or July and many females may share the same cavity for egg-laying. Some females keep the eggs in their bodies until they hatch. Otherwise, from egg to hatching takes eight weeks. It takes one year for them to reach sexual maturity. (www.nhaudobon.org/atn_snakes.html)

I found two of these snakes this morning in different places, but both under rocks.  

Evvy was interested in creatures that move faster.  She entertained herself by chasing, very briefly, a Snowshoe Hare.   Evvy was unsuccessful at catching the hare, just I figured.  She is not a good hunter, she just runs and bounds like a clod.  The only bounty that Evvy is successful at catching, is dead things, bones, carcasses, and of course the smelliest excrement she can find.