North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

Smooth green snakes are known to climb in bushes looking for insects, 
and the only one I have seen was about 3 feet off the ground in a bush.
I expect that your garter snake was doing the same.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario



William C. Garthright wrote:
> This is only slightly on topic - and it's not very important, at that - 
> but can anyone tell me what the garter snakes are doing climbing my 
> black raspberry canes? I doubt if they're eating the raspberries. :-)
>
> I've got LOTS of garter snakes in the yard, and I'm always glad to see 
> them. But seeing a big (for a garter snake) snake three feet off the 
> ground in the raspberry patch yesterday was kind of surprising. What was 
> it doing? I thought they mostly ate earthworms, but the other day, 
> someone here mentioned slugs, so maybe that's what it was looking for. I 
> never see slugs when I'm picking raspberries (though I haven't been 
> looking), but I don't know what else the snake could catch there.
>
> Just wondering - though, I guess, not enough to spend time searching 
> online. As I say, it's not very important, but does anyone know? I've 
> seen snakes climbing bushes and vines often enough, but this is the 
> first time I've seen one climb raspberries. I assume that they're 
> hunting something, though maybe it's just safer than staying on the ground?
>
> OK, time to go pick raspberries again, if the snakes - or, more likely, 
> the birds - haven't gotten there first. :-)
>
> Bill
> Lincoln, NE (zone 5)