I have lived hear near 20 years and I have seen more snakes in the yard this spring than in all the previous years combined. I have also ran across more fishing and mushrooming than usual. I have not looked up the Chinese calender to see if it is the year of the snake. I am wondering if it has anything to do with the extremely warm spring. They are just water snakes and garter snakes--there are very few if any poisenous snakes around here but they still get my attention real quick!