Snake Chat: A Conversation with Local Reptile Educator Galen Freed-Wilhem

Posted June 3, 2025

Filed under Reptiles, Snakes

TRANSCRIPT:

[Sonoma Overlook Trail]
Welcome to the Sonoma Overlook Trail podcast. I’m Jess from the Overlook Trail Stewards.

In honor of the Chinese New Year of the Wood Snake, my guest today is Galen Freed-Wilhelm, a local snake handler and reptile educator. In addition to his love for reptiles, he has a deep passion for environmental causes and actually received the Youth Environmental Award from Sonoma County Conservation Council.

Among other endeavors, Galen volunteers at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park in Kenwood, California, where he leads nature walks, works on the trails, and relocates rattlesnakes from the campground there.

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Sssnakes….

Posted April 30, 2025

Filed under Reptiles, Snakes, Spring

California Night Snake

It’s that time again: spring! Nature has been staging post-winter awakenings around here for weeks now, and due to what was another healthy rainy season, there is an abundance of plant life, which fuels a myriad of other life. Wildflowers, fawns, bees, lizards, and…snakes!

This little friend popped up in a pile of gravel on a trail work day last weekend. He/she is a California night snake (Hypsiglena torquata nuchalata), one of the rarest snakes in Sonoma County and although mildly venomous, known to be harmless to humans. California night snakes are nocturnal and are generally about 7 inches long at birth; this one was likely at its first molt. When coiled, it could have fit on a nickel. Their diet includes insects, lizards and other snakes.

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Love, Lizard Style

Posted May 9, 2024

Filed under Lizards, Love

Sonoma Overlook Trail, May 8, 2024

Words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, physical touch…the five classic Love Languages.

Lizards have their own seduction style. Redefining the term “love bite,” lizard courtship is known to include the male clenching his desired tightly behind the neck, for hours or even days, until she becomes ready to mate.

Sonoma Overlook Trail lizards are no exception; if you come upon a pair thusly engaged, please leave them undisturbed! The female will emerge from the ritual unharmed.

We Overlook Stewards revere lizards for their own sake as well as for a particular aspect of their role in the eco system that contributes to the protection of humans. Our local breeds of lizards, including the western fence lizard and the northern alligator lizard shown here, eat ticks and also contain a protein that kills the spirochetes in the guts of Lyme infected ticks. So if an infected tick bites one of these lizards, it’s cured of its Lyme Disease. This doesn’t preclude the need to take caution in regards to ticks, but it’s one more reason to appreciate our little friends on the trail.

Snake Season

Posted June 11, 2020

Filed under Reptiles, Snakes, Summer, Wildlife

We are thoroughly in snake season now, with rattlesnake sightings up dramatically this year. That news made me dismayed that I had yet to see a single one, despite being on the trail (and off) every day. All that changed today, when I saw two in one place (see photo). One appeared to be my old friend “Big Jo(e)”, which has a characteristic dark coloring and at least ten rattles. The other snake was new to me, with a distinct greenish hue and also a large number of rattles. It is the one coiled in the picture. I guess now I have to come up with another name!

The location where they were sighted was off the trail to the left when going up Holstein Hill trail, just prior to the wide wheelchair turnaround spot, also called “Coyote Point.” Since one snake subsequently slid into a crevice in the rock wall, it’s possible that there is a den there, so be extra careful in that area.

Meanwhile, keep your eyes open anywhere on these properties and stay safe out there!