In February, with temperatures still in the mid-40s, Florida green water snakes were basking and breeding.
My target on that seasonably warm mid-February morning was Florida round-tailed muskrats. In the 3 hours I spent scanning the marsh, discounting the underwater activities of the little rodents, the total number of muskrats seen was a resounding zero. But the day was far from wasted, for atop the many muskrat lodges a major courtship and mating game was being played out—by Florida green water snakes, Nerodia floridana. The morning air temperature, a sunny and rapidly warming 45F (water temps, although not measured, were undoubtedly many degrees warmer), were adequate for the snakes to seek the dry basking areas. It seemed a near invariable that the females emerged from the water first but each was soon followed by one or more males.

Now, about a month later, the females, now gravid and noticeably heavier in girth, continue their daily basking but the males are more actively foraging. If the gestating females successfully avoid/evade the bitterns, egrets, and great blue herons, there should be a banner crop of neonates late this spring. I’ll keep you posted.