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It was a big, black snake (scroll for video).
Roxy Flanagan, 32, of Annapolis, was in Ocean City, MD, over the weekend with her family and coworkers from Brooklyn Park Dental for Springfest.
It was Saturday afternoon, April 26, when the kids asked to dip their toes in the water. Flanagan stayed back in the parking lot chatting with a friend while her mother took the kids to the shoreline.
“I heard my daughter scream so I run down, and all I hear her say is, ‘Mommy, it’s a snake,’” Flanagan said. “I’m like, it’s probably just a stick coming from the ocean.”
But it wasn’t.
“As I get closer the thing started moving,” she said. “I pulled out my phone and started recording and the snake came out of the ocean water and went into the sand. It tried to go back into the ocean but the waves kept bringing it back."
Flanagan said she called Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources. About 15 to 20 minutes later, she says, officers showed up, rescued the snake, and put it in a black bag.
“I asked, 'What are you going to do with it?" she said. “They said, 'We’re just going to put it in the wilderness.' I was like, there’s no wilderness around here. When they looked at me they said I seemed very surprised this is happening. They said this wasn’t the first time."
Flanagan shared video and photos on Facebook showing the large black snake writhing in the sand.
While no one is quite sure how the reptile ended up in the Atlantic, one person online claimed it was an eastern hognose snake, Flanagan said.
According to the DNR site, eastern hognose snakes are typically between 20 and 33 inches and tend to exhibit "bizarre" behavior when approached, making them easily identifiable.
"They initially hiss and spread their neck like a cobra’s hood, then go through the throes of death, roll over and play dead, letting their tongue hang out," the website says.
"When turned upright they immediately roll back over. Their coloration is variable with yellow, brown, gray, orange or red on a dark splotch patterned back, however some individuals are an un-patterned ebony black or dark grey."
The eastern hognose has an upturned snout with a keel above it and the underside of its tail is lighter than the dark mottled belly, the DNR site said.
For Flanagan, seeing a snake at the beach was a first. But it isn’t her first brush with a critter at the ocean.
Years ago, while in Miami, she says a baby sand shark bit the back of her leg — and she’s been nervous around ocean water ever since.
“I go on cruises and I travel and I go to crystal clear water I still won’t get in,” she said. “Me personally? I won’t swim in the waters. I’ll still go to the beach but with caution, but my kids — I won’t let that stop them from enjoying the sun or have them in fear."
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