Okefenokee Snake Hunting

Okefenokee Photography by William Wise. A nature photo journal exploration of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp, the Land of Trembling Earth, one of the largest blackwater swamps in North America. The alligators, birds, snakes and wildlife of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Stephen C Foster State Park. -- "What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at Your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations." Psalms 104 The Message

Plain-bellied Watersnake, Nerodia erythrogaster along the Trembling Earth Nature Trail; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia.

​Wednesday, 11:37 AM - After our initial guided boat tour of Billy’s Lake, we returned to our campsite for lunch and to load our gear for an afternoon paddling expedition to Billy’s Island.  Not knowing the boat rental office would be closed for lunch, we made another stroll of the Trembling Earth Nature Trail boardwalk to pass time.  

In the early 1990s, when I should have been sitting in my college classes, I was usually out in the rural areas and swamps of Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas flipping pieces of tin and digging through piles of debris hoping to find snakes. Reptiles became a lasting interest, and much of what drew me to the Okefenokee Swamp in first place. Twenty years later I’m back in the Okefenokee with my twelve-year-old daughter. Thankfully she shared her dad’s love of snakes and was hopeful for a reptile find as well! 

Brown Watersnake, Nerodia taxispilota, along the Trembling Earth Nature Trail; Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia.

We weren’t disappointed as we quickly came across a Brown Watersnake along the swamp boardwalk in the Stephen C Foster State Park. I’m not sure how we spotted this perfectly camouflaged dark, black and brown snake laying in the dark water choked with brown leaf litter. There are several species of Nerodia found in the Okefenokee. I usually recognize N. taxispilota by the squarish blotches that run in equal spacing down its back, cady-corner with the patches that run alternatingly down each side. 

Walking further down the swamp boardwalk, my eyes were constantly scanning left and right among the shallow waters and cypress knees. My daughter and I were constantly engaged in a silent competion to spot snakes. I don’t know how, but it seems that Amanda is always the one to find the snakes on our trips. She discovered the beautiful Canebrake Rattlesnake at Cloudland Canyon State Park by nearly putting her foot down upon the serpent stretched across the trail. But not this time! I was going to out-score her in the Okefenokee this year! 

As we rounded a corner on the trail, Amanda’s eyes were caught by a slow slithering five feet below the boardwalk. “SNAKE!” she shouted! Laying there at the base of a Blackgum tree was a stout Plain-bellied Watersnake. Adult Nerodia erythrogaster typically have unpatterned backs and bright, plain bellies. This beauty was nearly pure red underneath. 

​As our 2015 Okefenokee trip came to an end, Amanda had outscored me on snakes four-to-one nearly the entire time. But on the last evening I found a baby Banded Watersnake by the campground bathroom, bringing my tally to a meager two! It always rubs my “I’m-the-snake-man” ego the wrong way when she outscores me. But I comfort myself by thinking, “She gets it from me.”