A Coast Gartersnake with blue eyes? That’s what Karen Wilkinson recently saw. She wrote, “I was able to snap a quick photo of this snake whose eyes looked a little strange.” Karen found this information on the web. "Garter snakes with blue-ish eyes are undergoing the shedding process, where the old skin, including the one covering their eyes, is being shed. This process causes the eye to appear cloudy blue due to fluid buildup between the old and new skin layers. The blue-ish eyes are a normal part of this process and indicate the snake is about to shed its skin.”

I sent Karen’s photo to herpetologist Gary Nafis and he concurred. He wrote, “The picture is a good illustration of why snake keepers call a snake that's going to shed ‘in blue.’ They get a bit cranky then because they can't see well.”

Thanks to Karen for allowing me to share her photo with you here! And you can learn so much from Gary's website: https://californiaherps.com/

It was drippy foggy this morning, but it pulled back over the Pacific Ocean this afternoon. Temps are very mild, around 60 degrees. No wind!