Flora and Fauna of The Azure Gate Bed and Breakfast: Black Racer

Returning to my series of photos taken here at our Bed and Breakfast, we come to the Black Racer. We've had 10 different snake species here, and this one is one of the most beautiful -- and definitely the fastest:

Black Racer

Black Racer

Today's "5" Star photo is a Black Racer usually found in the southeastern part of the US but extends into southern Arizona as well. This is a marginal "5" Star photo. I think I bumped it up to five because it is such a beautiful snake and very, very fast. We've seen him "fleeing" down our driveway being chased by a dozen or more Gambels Quail. Here he is just resting under one of our agaves.

Black racers are only active during the daytime and are most active in warm weather. At night and during cold weather they take refuge in burrows. Racers hunt by sight and are often observed actively foraging during the day. They are not active at night. They eat a wide variety of prey including insects, lizards, snakes, birds, rodents, and amphibians. In turn, they are preyed upon by a variety of predatory birds, mammals and snakes such as kingsnakes and larger racers. When captured, prey are not constricted and are consumed alive. 

Black Racer

On to Snakes

Since the snakes are out and about now, I thought I'd spend the next couple of days with the Arizona Snakes. The first is the black racer. And, he is fast when he wants to be. One day, Christine saw him speeding down the driveway with a Gambel's Quail on his back and several others following behind. This time of year snakes and quail don't get along well together. Too many quail eggs around. The second photo is a Bull Snake roaming around our property a couple of years ago. The Bull Snake is the largest of Arizona's snakes in it a subspecies of the gopher snake. The third photo is another subspecies of the gopher snake, the Sonora Gopher Snake, taken in the Galiluro Mountains of Arizona. I showed you one of these a couple of days ago that was drinking from a water bowl here on our property.