I stand corrected...

Remember this little guy from my post yesterday?


This afternoon I received an email from the dear Professor Eckerman. He wrote:


"I thought you might be interested to know that the picture of the snake you took at ledges is actually a full grown, adult brown snake (Storeria dekayi). I see those quite commonly in Iowa. Most people don’t realize that there are several really small snakes in addition to the larger ones we are used to. However, I realize that this is little consolation. Having any snake thrown (or kicked) in your direction is usually unnerving to most people"

He would know, as his chosen profession requires a great knowledge of things most girls would call creepy and crawly.

Just out of curiosity I did a tiny bit of research tonight. It seems the brown snake is quite common and unexciting. I am, however, considering introducing one to the flowerbed that was so generously over-populated by slugs this summer. He ought to be a nice companion to the Gardener snake that is residing under the front porch.

"For other species commonly referred to as the brown snake, see brown snake.
The Brown Snake is a small species of colubrid snake native to most of the eastern half of the United States, through Mexico and into Central America. The epithet dekayi is in honor of Portuguese-American zoologist James Ellsworth Dekay who collected the first specimen in Long Island, New York."

~Wikipedia

So my gratitude to Mr. Eckerman for saving me from this faux pas. And for the record, I was more unnerved by Sis screaming. I was, in fact, quite oblivious to the fact an airborne snake had just passed me by.

This has made me wonder how many other small details we over-look everyday. Isn't it common human nature to lump the subjects of our daily existence together?