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11 year old picture -- but with a cameraphone(!) -- sadly not an entry. I caught this specimen wandering through my iris looking for slugs. Some variant of garter snake (Thamnophis), I'm gonna say Eastern plains garter snake (T. radix radix), but definitely some Eastern garter snake.

Only recently, it's been observed that they're venomous. I guess because that doesn't really apply to humans no one really looked into it. Anyway, risk of salmonella from handling a specimen is of much more concern to homo sapiens -- wash your hands, people, these things are unpasteurized eggs in the wild! They'll poop on you!

Shortly after the photo was taken, this individual, or one very much like it, was found in my basement eating a mouse. Mixed message: pest control good, being another pest: bad. Being a conservationist, I took the invader back outside -- it dropped the mouse first, thinking that was my goal. Failing that, it rared up, mouth agape and made as if to snap at me. It must have known its harmless nature, since it only threatened and didn't actually bite thus and reveal its harmlessness like a cowardly dog pretending it would maul you if not for this darn leash!

If you're wondering, I shot this with a Sony-Ericsson K550i -- a really nice camera in a candybar format phone, particularly for nature closeups in good light.