I overheard two of my female co-workers discussing Moraine State Park and how they always would visit the park with their parents as youngsters.

One of the young women commented that she was going to reacquaint herself and her children to Lake Arthur and try kayaking and swimming out in the inviting waters of the park.

In a hurried fashion, the other young lady whipped out her cell phone and pulled up a picture of an alleged water moccasin sunning itself on some boulders along the shoreline of the lake. In a moment, both declared that they would stay away from the lake if it had such a large poisonous snake.

Once again, a false rumor based on ignorance sprang out of an internet picture and possibly ruined a family’s plan to do something outdoors.

I tried to rectify the misunderstanding with factual information, but the fear of snakes (ophidiophobia) had taken all reason out of their decision making. I went on to try to explain that there were no water moccasin snakes in the wild in Pennsylvania.

They are a southern swamp snake and just not in our geographical area. The picture certainly was a large snake sunning itself on a rock and I did recognize the 528 Bridge area in the background, but it was more than likely a northern water snake. The northern water snake is not poisonous, but it is a large snake that can grow to over 50 inches long.

The northern water snake tends to display an aggressive personality and can be quite formidable when angered. They will likely flee from any human activity, but if it feels threatened, it will strike at you repeatedly.

It has powerful jaws and can inflict a nasty bite that can bleed profusely. This is due to an anti-coagulant in the snake’s saliva.

The northern water snake can be seen in an array of colors and patterns on the snake can be muted. Generally, they will be reddish brown to brownish black with dark blotches starting at the neck and on down across the body.

The habitat of the northern water snake is always near water, lakes, rivers, ponds and bogs. It travels both day and night and loves to sun itself like most cold-blooded reptiles.

All 67 counties in Pennsylvania are home to this snake. Northern water snakes stir from their winter home and look for a mate from April through June.

Interestingly enough, this snake gives live birth to up to 25 young water snakes about six to 12 inches long in their litter sometime between August and October.

The snakes hunt most of their food in the water and along the waters’ edge. They enjoy frogs, crayfish, minnows and crustaceans.

They will eat any wounded or disabled fish, which I witnessed while fishing at the Glades Lake on Game lands 95. A bluegill was caught by mistake and released, but was not doing very well and showed signs of distress.

Out of seemingly nowhere, a northern water snake came up and latched on to the fish and swam away with his prize. Interestingly enough, on a different day we flushed a water snake near the bank of Harbor Acres on GL 95 and it swam quickly across a corner of the lake.

With a gigantic splash, a huge large mouth bass reciprocated the predator-prey relationship and disappeared with the smaller northern water snake. No way could that happen to a full-grown snake unless it was a musky or an eagle doing the predator role.

My friends may never accept the true tale of the northern water snake, but that really is their loss to shut out nature at its finest. All life on this earth has a role to play and because of our fear, snakes are often killed due to our misunderstandings.

Some snakes should be avoided due to their disposition or that they can be poisonous. Pennsylvania has three snakes that are poisonous, the Eastern Massasauga, the Timber Rattlesnake and the Northern Copperhead.

Of these three, the Eastern Massasauga snake is on the list of endangered species and calls Butler County home. I have only seen this snake in the wild three times as they are quite reclusive.

Jennings Nature Reserve has been identified as one of the select area habitats.There are 18 other snakes in Pennsylvania that are not only harmless, but actually beneficial.

I have two snakes that we see regularly working around our flower beds, plantings and garden. Since they have been around, we have seen a marked decline in slug activity around our flowers and vegetables.

Until we meet again, cut the snakes a break and try to learn about all of the creatures that we share the earth with.

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle