I know almost all of us used to do this..

[spidersandmonsters]

For most of us, a passion for reptiles isn't something that recently sprung out of nowhere. I know as a kid I spent every day in the woods catching snakes, spiders, lizards, turtles, newts, frogs and anything else. I had a ten gallon talk I would keep them in for a couple of days so I could feed them and see what they were like, and then let them go. Mind you, I was probably about eight or nine. Well, old habits die hard haha I found this guy in my yard a couple of days ago. Sorry for the bad quality, if you're familiar with black racers, yeah.

 

[bonedoc]

That is so awesome. Used to do the same...funny thing is I get to watch my sons do it now.
Last week I came across a 6ft black rat snake crossing the road in Northeast PA here. I stopped my jeep as he was in the middle of the road, luckily had not been hit. I stayed in the road stopping cars till he crossed safely. You don't see them that size too often anymore.

 

[katoeLAZARO]

I use to catch street lizards with nets lol and let them go I felt like Steve erwin <3 fun times but I got my first bal python and then a spree of reptiles started coming and when I went to my first reptile EXPO it blow my mind away. Lol

 

[kellen.watkins]

Yup I used to catch all types of lizards and keep them all summer long, whiptails were always my favorite native lizard

 

[dragonmetalhead]

I remember many hours of my childhood spent running after fence lizards in the park behind my house. Don't do it much anymore, but I will always stop and remove a reptile from the road so it doesn't get run over. My neighbors still call me to get snakes out of their backyards, although I refuse to handle live rattlers.

 

[JohnMatthew]

I haven't seen a black racer with yellow on it, usually more of a grey and red pattern on those youngsters. It could just as easily be the camera playing tricks though or some variant of which I'm unaware(which there are plenty I'm sure). They're usually pretty flighty too and the way that one's wrapped up seems more king or rat snake like, my first instinctive guess was speckled king. Regardless it's always great fun finding stuff and bringing back those childhood memories, awesome find!

I did all the normal(for us herpers) activities as a kid, not a log or stone was left unturned(and of course put back in its original position). I was lucky in that my parents supported my passion and the folks learned early on to ALWAYS carry an extra set of clothes for me wherever we went, I had the uncanny ability to find swamp areas despite the surrounding terrain. One of my favorite family visits would be to my grandparents house, they had large river rocks lined up their entire driveway. The first couple hours of those family reunions I could be found checking beneath each and every one, there had to be a couple hundred at least!

 

[spidersandmonsters]

See when I caught him I thought he was a ratsnake, but he was kinda flighty and really liked to bite. The curled position in the picture was a coincidence though, he spent most of the time stretched out straight. However, he did become incredibly tame incredibly fast.. like, a few hours fast and not even trying to get away tame, which was odd. I figure that he's a black racer though based on the position of his facial features, his speed (which was unbelievable), and the fact that black racers are everywhere around here. But you are right, yellow is a rare color on them and he was a beautiful jet black with a bright yellow underbelly and pattern. As far as the color goes, I live in pretty deep woods in Alabama and theres miles and miles of wilderness out here and strange things are always popping up.. we get the craziest color morphs of locusts and cicadas. There really is no telling what kind of crazy stuff is in those woods.