My Weekly Nature Question is about my asking for help from the blogosphere (and other internet users) to learn about species living in Angeles Forest and to share that learning with others. I’m really hoping that this turns out to be a viable and meaningful way to share knowledge.
The answer to last week’s plant question turned out to be Miner’s Lettuce and it is edible. As more information is shared, it will appear on the Miner’s Lettuce Forest Life Page where there are already links to more information.
It turned out to be a good thing that I missed a week of this series largely due to my trip to Sequoia. I didn’t know what the species was until last night when I saw that Dianne Erskine-Hellrigel identified the species through my Hiking Angeles Forest Facebook Page. Thanks Dianne! It turns out my photos are from the dried out period of the plant cycle. So, that probably made it more difficult to identify. I plan on going back to the trail in a month or two when the plant is green and take photos and add them to the forest life page.
This week nobody sent me any links to blog articles and I was unable to find any articles using the search feature in the WordPress Reader.
If you notice this post and have written (or decide to write) a post on Miner’s Lettuce, send me a link and I will add a link to its forest page and create a reference page like the one for 1Year. 365 Species to your blog.
This Week’s Question: What species of snake is this? I’m pretty sure it’s a gopher or garter snake but don’t know which species.
January 2013
Above photo taken from the Lower Sam Merrill Trail
January 2013
Above photo taken from the Lower Sam Merrill Trail
January 2013
Above photo taken from the Lower Sam Merrill Trail
January 2013
Above photo taken from the Lower Sam Merrill Trail
Hiking Angeles Forest 
You’re so brave… if this is my case to see the snake, i would probably run away as fast as i can 🙂
i’m not sure what specie of this snake, but i guess it’s not venomous, based on his head
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Definitely not venomous. I’m actually not brave. Not long ago I would have wanted to run away as well. However, since I decided to hike on a weekly basis I though it would be a good idea to read up on rattlesnakes. This helped me internalize the concept that snakes aren’t predatory to humans. Especially if it isn’t coiled up, there’s really no risk of getting bitten–especially if you give it space and photograph it with 20X zoom 😉
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Haha if I had not read that I would have sworn you were up close that snake.
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Your blog is great, even when you feature one of my least favorite animals. So great, that you are getting The Sunshine Award! Here’s the post linking to your blog: http://mowryjournal.com/2013/01/28/the-sunshine-award/.
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Thanks Henry! You prompted me to finally decide on a better way of participating in the award phenomenon. The bar was pretty low on that as I haven’t participated in the past. See: https://hikingangelesforest.com/awards-2/ Still not perfect, but a start in finding a way to participate while maintaining the focus of my blog. Thanks again!
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Found a reference photo of a San Diego Gopher Snake that resembles your snake: http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/images/pcannectenssb406.jpg
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Thanks Sue, I think you’re right that it is a gopher snake. This one looks almost exactly like the San Diego Gopher Snake, just without the brown coloring.
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How about a gopher snake? They have a characteristic black stripe in front of the eye and checkered back like your snake does. That is a huge, long snake in your photo, but really skinny as if it hadn’t eaten in a while.
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I’m going to guess it’s a big scary snake. 🙂 Nice photos.
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It looks bigger in the photo than it was in person. Unfortunately, sometimes zooming in distorts the scale of things.
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