Swamp Snake

On my first hike to Wekiwa, I discovered this little guy somewhat burried in the sand near, appropriately, Sand Lake.  He was quite dead, but with no apparent means of death.  At first I thought he was a Black Racer, but his underbelly is a bright, almost deathly, shade of red.  My instructor said that it was a Swamp Snake, which I'd never heard of before (but then again, I usually don't muck around in swamps).  At first, though, we thought it might be a Mud Snake, which is a little different because the red on its belly extends into little stripes on its back.  Hard to explain, so here's a website w/ a pic.

This snake was probably dropped by a predator, such as a hawk, since it was a nice ways from the actual water.  That would account for its death.  I'd feel sorry for it, but I like hawks much more than I do snakes.  ;)

I found a good website about the snakes here.  I couldn't imagine holding handfuls of them like the man in the photo is doing.

I've always been wary of snakes.  Yes, they're beautifully colored, but they seem to have a creepy aura about them.  And they look slimy.  I know they're not, really, because in first grade a naturalist brought in a snake to the class and I petted it.  Very dry and scaly.  But they still give me the creeps.  Especially black ones, for some reason.

 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.

~ Genesis 3:1