After nature camp, I stopped at Twin Oaks intentional community in Louisa County to visit a few friends. Twin Oaks is one of the largest and oldest (founded 1967) still running examples of an egalitarian, income-sharing intentional community in the United States.
The largest threat to wildlife populations is loss of habitat - and housing development contributes to that loss. There is only so much space and as our population continues to grow, we have to find alternative ways of sharing land and resources.
Twin Oaks is home to 70-100 people (their population varies) on 500 acres of land, most of that is preserved woodland that is home to all kinds of animals. The community owns and shares vehicles, grows much of its own food, and uses solar as part of its energy package (the cows love to sit in the shade of the solar panels).
While I was at Twin Oaks, I found a neat little snake, which I later identified as a smooth earth snake, Virginia valeriae. Virginia is home to 32 species of snakes, only 3 of which are venomous.
The smooth earth snake is a small snake, at full size it can be up to just 13 inches long. They may also be a reddish brown or tan color. The "smooth" in their name differentiates them from the rough earth snake, which looks similar but has keeled scales (meaning each scale has a ridge in the center).
These snakes spend much of their life underground, feeding on earthworms! They can be found under leaf litter, boards, logs or rocks. This snake species is viviparous, meaning the females give birth to live 2-9 live young! This species of snake is active year-round, except during periods of extremely cold weather.
I have always loved snakes and even had a ball python of my own as a teenager, so it was very neat to stumble upon this cute little guy. I let him go after taking his photo for identification.
I would recommend getting to know more about the snakes that inhabit Virginia - you can read about them all
here and even take a snake quiz
here! If you want to check out some other species of Virginia native snakes in person, I would recommend a visit to the Nature Center at
Potomac Overlook Regional Park. More to come on the animals that live there in my next post!
Sources:
A Guide to the Snakes and Lizards of Virginia. Special Publication Number 6, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_community
https://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/reptiles/snakes/eastern-smooth-earthsnake/eastern_smooth_earthsnake.php
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