First snake of the year

And a coachwhip, to really start things off right! It's tee-shirt weather around here on this January 4th (mid-seventies), and I thought I'd take a look under the roofing tin to see if any snakes had come up for the warmth. This usually is pointless in January, but of the five pieces of metal I lifted, two had young coachwhip snakes. I generally see black racers under these, and that's what I would have expected, but you never can tell.

I've scattered 10 of these pieces of metal roofing across our property.

Note the rodent burrow the snake uses...

A youngster, probably not quite 3 feet long, and looking a bit roughed up.
Click for a better view.

And here's what it looked like down at the pond around 8:00 this morning: