A few years ago there was a pic on the Field Notes forum of some magnificent Easterns from Oklahoma or Kansas(?) I don't recall just where. They were big and black with a hint of bronze overwash. What beasts.

I was out recently and saw some wild Blue Racers. I love the way those snakes seem to flee, but if you're patient and stealthy you might catch them spying you out from a perch in a nearby bush. They double back to see what you're about.

A friend has a Striped Whipsnake and it's one of the most inquisitive snakes I've seen. It's always slipping around behind its pile of hiding bark, then peeking at us over the edge of the bark or through a space in the pile. If we turn away for a moment to look at something else, the whipsnake is periscoping to check us out when we look back.

I prefer to keep active snakes like whipsnakes and coachwhips in very large cages--I'm never satisfied since no cage is freedom, so I practically build them their own house if I have room. My friend with the whipsnake has space and I made him some of the biggest cages I've ever done. This whipsnake lives in a cage over six feet long. An active, intelligent snake in a big cage is what the hobby is all about for me. My friend enjoys that whipsnake and also his western coachwhip on very different levels than he enjoys his Cal Mt Kings and other colorful Sterilite dwellers.

Sighthunters--coachwhips, indigos, racers and whipsnakes--are addictive. Collectors who don't keep them sometimes express concern that they are high-maintenance, and I suppose they are compared to boas, kings, ratsnakes etc, but so, so worth it.

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