Ringneck Snakes

These beautiful little snakes are all over my yard. Today I caught six or seven of them, which is probably a Personal Best.

The Florida ringneck is jet black with a characteristic "bracelet" of gold around its neck. Our subspecies is one that flashes an underside that's a screaming yellow flushing to red at the end.

There's also a key ringneck, so rare it's found only on one of the Florida Keys.

They're very shy and secretive, and only come out at night. During the day they love to curl up under rocks and under bark. Since I decorate my yard with rocks all over the place, and put down pine bark in place of grass, I get lots of ringnecks. Finding them during the day is one of the great side benefits of my yard work.