Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am fixin' up an old farmhouse in Holland, NY (SW of Buffalo) I pulled three 3 ft long snakes from within a rotted section of wood wall behind a brick facade. They sure looked like corn snakes to me! One of them even had something like a spreapoint on his head and black checks the entire length of its body. What do y'all think? The most northern corn snakes ever? or juvenile black rat snakes?

Thanks,
Mark VanDerwater

It's probably an Eastern Milksnake. Corns are not found that far North. Buffalo gets really cold in the winter. BTW, I live in Syracuse.

I wondered about that but they had flat bellies. And the blotches seemed to be outlined in a lighter rather than darker color. They did have an almost spearpoint be ind head and irregular black checks on belly. In my Peterson's guide they resembled Gray Rat Snakes. I found a snake skin in the opposite corner of the house today (I'm tearing open the eaves. When I take the roof off - maybe I'll see more!

Anything I should look for to help make agood ID next time? I'm originally from Syracuse - whereabouts are ya? Thanks for responding!

Mark