Snakes
James Taber
November 20, 2025
I was sitting in my office one day working hard for the company as always, when all of a sudden I heard a loud bloodcurdling scream. My immediate thought was oh no our health insurance premiums got raised again!. Shortly thereafter somebody poked their head in my door and said quick come to the kitchen.
Thinking there was some type of an emergency going on or that our neighbors across the street from the postal processing center were attacking I immediately shut down my work effort and beelined for the company kitchen.
When I got to the kitchen my initial investigation revealed that two of the company employees had gone into the kitchen to grab a couple of cups of coffee and noted a large rubber snake laying on the floor of the kitchen. They laughed and said somebody is being a prankster, rumor has it that my name was even mentioned.
One of the employees went to pick the rubber snake up and it puffed up and hissed at them and started crawling which precipitated the aforementioned bloodcurdling scream. Using various instruments such as a broom and a small plastic trashcan the snake was gently herded out the door into the back patio of the building which was a nice little area with lots of shrubbery and bushes and trees.
Being an outdoorsman and fisherman and hunter, practically from birth, I have always been fascinated by all kinds of creatures from trees to bees and that includes snakes. I recognized this snake as possibly being one that I had always kept my eye out for but I had never seen in my entire life afield. I ran out to my vehicle and got my camera and went to the back patio.
I was having a hard time locating the reptile until I moved some leaves apart and heard a loud hiss and there it was, the Holy Grail of NH snakes, for me anyways, the Eastern Hognose snake. I snapped some photos of the snake and then went back to my office and emailed them to Michael Marchand a NHFG wildlife biologist, who confirmed my identification.
He was very excited and came down and got permission to search for the snake on company property and did a very intensive search but could not find him. He said that was the first sighting of one in the Concord area in over 50 years.
About six months later there was another snake by the coffee pot incident, THAT one I plead guilty too!
Thinking there was some type of an emergency going on or that our neighbors across the street from the postal processing center were attacking I immediately shut down my work effort and beelined for the company kitchen.
When I got to the kitchen my initial investigation revealed that two of the company employees had gone into the kitchen to grab a couple of cups of coffee and noted a large rubber snake laying on the floor of the kitchen. They laughed and said somebody is being a prankster, rumor has it that my name was even mentioned.
One of the employees went to pick the rubber snake up and it puffed up and hissed at them and started crawling which precipitated the aforementioned bloodcurdling scream. Using various instruments such as a broom and a small plastic trashcan the snake was gently herded out the door into the back patio of the building which was a nice little area with lots of shrubbery and bushes and trees.
Being an outdoorsman and fisherman and hunter, practically from birth, I have always been fascinated by all kinds of creatures from trees to bees and that includes snakes. I recognized this snake as possibly being one that I had always kept my eye out for but I had never seen in my entire life afield. I ran out to my vehicle and got my camera and went to the back patio.
I was having a hard time locating the reptile until I moved some leaves apart and heard a loud hiss and there it was, the Holy Grail of NH snakes, for me anyways, the Eastern Hognose snake. I snapped some photos of the snake and then went back to my office and emailed them to Michael Marchand a NHFG wildlife biologist, who confirmed my identification.
He was very excited and came down and got permission to search for the snake on company property and did a very intensive search but could not find him. He said that was the first sighting of one in the Concord area in over 50 years.
About six months later there was another snake by the coffee pot incident, THAT one I plead guilty too!
Rare state endangered Eastern Hognose snake photographed by James Taber in Concord, New Hampshire
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