There is in South Florida, a salt marsh in which dwell some of the prettiest mangrove saltmarsh snakes, Nerodia clarkii compressicauda, I have ever happened across.



There are many, of course, that are rather run-of-the-mill, but there are some that are clad in scales that are the brightest red I have ever seen on a water snake.

Many evenings the search first turns up one or more mangroves that are the more traditional dull olive green with variably distinct dark markings that are also variable in shape--sometimes blotches, sometimes bands, and sometimes stripes. The latter, if present, usually on the neck and anterior body.

Although also variable, the red examples tend towards a solid, unpatterned color, be it a rather pale orange red, a medium red, or the bright red, the phase I search most eagerly for, for no reason other than I enjoy seeing it.

As an entity, mangrove salt marsh snakes are fairly common in coastal areas along the southern two-thirds of the Florida peninsula and the Keys. The farther north in their range you find them, the more apt they are to be of grayish ground color and have broken dark striping. At the northernmost end of the range on both coasts, there is a intergradation with the subspecies next northward. That is the Gulf salt marsh snake, N. c. clarkii on the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic salt marsh snake, N. c. taeniata, on the Atlantic Coast.