10/06/2026
Consider taking a walk or bike ride on a quiet road and reporting the snakes you find to the Vermont Reptile & Amphibian Atlas!
After the first cold nights of the late summer and early fall, snakes start moving back to their denning areas. Over the last month, we have received reports of all of Vermont’s snake species moving back to their dens except the North American Racer and Eastern Ribbonsnake.
Sadly for the snakes, many of them need to cross roads to get to their overwintering spots. On sunny fall days, open roads are often warm, and the migrating snakes often linger on the road surface to soak up some heat. When my daughters were young, I took them to check a nearby snake crossing area on the first sunny day after our first fall frost. In about an hour of walking a short 100-yard section of dirt road at the south end of Snake Mountain in Bridport, we found as many as 36 Dekay’s Brownsnakes, along with Red-bellied Snakes, Common Gartersnakes, Eastern Milksnakes, and even an occasional Smooth Greensnake. This dirt road separated a wet, unmowed field from a rocky, wooded hillside in the Lake Champlain Basin, so it was an ideal crossing area for Dekay’s Brownsnakes. Sadly, some of the snakes had been run over, but most of them were alive, and we moved them to the uphill side of the road. As sad as it is to see dead snakes, they still provide useful distribution information and are worth photographing and reporting.
The photo here shows a Dekay’s Brownsnake on the left and a Red-bellied Snake on the right. They were found on a road in Fletcher by Shannon and Penny Kane. The color of the underside (venter) is a very useful field mark for distinguishing these two closely related species. Also, their head and neck patterns are quite different. Notice the light diamond mark on the back of the head of the Red-bellied Snake and the dark “sideburns” on the Dekay’s. Although this Red-bellied is dark gray, some are black, and most are a similar color to the Dekay’s Brownsnake on the left.
I hope I can convince you to take a walk or bike ride on a nearby quiet road on the next sunny day after a cold and frosty night (perhaps early next week!), and report what you find to us at https://www.vtherpatlas.org/sighting-submission-form/
