This has been a great year for finding hatchlings and adult eastern milksnakes in my yard, basement and now my garage. I'm a little shocked at how late I found this guy (Nov. 11) but it has been mild in central Mass. even though we had 20 inches of snow in a freak storm on Oct. 29.



So I found this adult male eastern in my garage on Friday. He is the lightest colored and slightly brownish in color eastern I have found around my house - they tend to be redder and darker. He has kind of a peach wash all over his body and especially near the tail. Thin black bands. He is 32 inches long (I've seen bigger in my neighborhood).



So I found him, took some photos and then do what I always do with all wild snakes I find - I let him go at the edge of the woods near a wood pile at the rear of my property.



Well, tonight (Sunday) I found him in my garage again. I compared him to the photos I took and it is the exact same snake! So I let him stay in the garage near my wood bin where I found him both times. If he trekked all the way up from the woods and across my yard and somehow found his way in through a crack in the foundation behind the front steps he is welcome to stay in the garage in the foundation for the winter. He obviously has been staying in there for some time. Bonus: My wife was very understanding about this. She actually felt bad I evicted him the first time I found him on Friday.



The photos attached show a full body shot, a head close-up shot and a side body shot to try and show the peach wash and the almost olive colored blotches. He was very calm, though alert, and never tried to bite. It might be because it was only in the upper 40s to low 50s.



I feel pretty lucky.



Rob Haneisen

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