In the New England bird world, there is the ring-necked pheasant and the ring-necked duck. The ring-necked duck should probably be called the ring-billed duck, but that’s a story for another day. Then there is the ring-billed gull, but that’s also not relevant to this column.

The other day, my son Andrew and I came across a ring-necked animal of another sort. It was a ring-necked snake, and it is very aptly named.

Andrew, now 20, is still very naturally curious. We still turn over rocks and logs near ponds to see what lurks underneath, just like we have done together since he was a toddler. We usually find red-backed salamanders, and that was what we expected to find on this warm, sunny fall afternoon.

We turned over the first rock. Nothing. We moved a long log aside. A few worms. The next rock yielded a small, slender, black wiggly creature. Andrew reached down and gently picked up the as-of-yet mystery animal. 

The scales gave it away as a snake, and the bright yellow band confirmed it as a ring-necked snake. It was a young snake and smaller than the earthworms that crawled their way into their dirt tunnels when their log was disturbed.

It was the first ring-necked snake we found together. I once found a dead baby ring-necked snake in a spider web in my basement, and I have seen them around woodpiles before, but never on a walk with Andrew. We come across garter and water snakes fairly often. One day last summer, we walked near a pond and there were so many water snakes on the shore we had to watch our step to avoid stepping on them.

Ring-necked snakes, like most snakes in New England, are harmless to humans. There aren’t a ton of snakes to be found in New England, and only the timber rattlesnake and copperhead are venomous. The odds of coming across either of those snakes in New England is very low.

Garter snakes are the ones most commonly found in New England. They can be found on a walk in the woods or a stroll around the house. Garter snakes can grow to an intimidating size (about 30 inches), but the ones I usually find anyway are much smaller. Northern water snakes get even bigger (about 40 inches) and are often found in intimidating sizes.

I’ve only seen pint-sized baby ring-necked snakes. They don’t get terribly big (about 17 inches), and they are slender critters. They are easily identifiable by the yellow or white ring around their necks. Their bellies are yellow or red, usually yellow in New England. If the snake feels threatened, it may expose the yellow belly to appear toxic. 

Thankfully I have not experienced this, but ring-necked snakes apparently emit a foul-smelling musk as another defense mechanism. The website of the Orianne Society, an organization that conserves imperiled reptiles and amphibians, describes the musk as smelling like “rancid cottage cheese soaked in dirty pennies.” I don’t know what that smells like, nor do I want to find out. 

Ring-necked snakes are hearty and adaptable with a range that covers most of the U.S. from top to bottom and into Canada. The eastern ring-necked snake is the subspecies found in New England. They are largely nocturnal, which may explain why they aren’t seen as often as garter snakes. 

I always get a thrill when I see ring-necked pheasants in a field or ring-necked ducks on a pond or lake in the winter. On this day, however, it was the ring-necked snake that took the spotlight.