Remember the egg-eating snake from a few posts? Well, he had a voracious appetite. The hen wouldn't stay on her nest after the incident, so we let the snake have those eggs since they weren't fit for human consumption. The eating was so good that he brought a friend to stay. I found two snakes in the chicken coop while collecting eggs last weekend. Seeing the one snake shimmy straight up the wall to his full six feet was proof positive that no bluebird house is safe without a baffle.
I'm not skittish, but the never before witnessed prowess of the rat snake gave me the all-overs.We decided the snakes had to go.
We decided on a relocation plan - bag and transport to the spring stream about a mile away. We were able to catch both snakes and K drove them over the hills and to the swamp to their new home. One of the snakes, the least aggressive of the two, slithered off into the stream. The other shook his tail, "reared up like a cobra (my son's description)," and threatened to strike. Of course, K thought it was a photo op and moved forward rather than backwards.
We went to the museum yesterday because tennis was rained out. We talked to my snake expert cousin who felt that we should have carried them farther from our house and the chickens.
We're waiting for their return.
All photos by K.
5 comments:
Great captures, K -- photographic and otherwise!
Are these serpents just lazy, or have your kitties eradicated the rodent supply? (Did I ask that before?)
I think my kids would've created terrariums (suburbanites do the darnedest things) and made a project of seeing what the snakes would eat and how long each meal took to digest. They come by their fascination with snakes naturally (I love 'em), which goes under-appreciated by Moose's friend, Liz. If I show Liz a teeny-tiny 18 inch ribbon snake, he'll scream like a girl and run up a tree :-)
(Aside: I'm blogging while looking at "Under the Tuscan Sun," because who needs sound with all that delicious imagery? Let's escape the snakes and go to Tuscany!)
Wow! Great pictures, but those snakes are just Too Big for me to be happy around! I hope they decide that they are happy on the other side of the creek!
I have to draw the line somewhere. We already have an aquarium cattle water trough with bream, turtles, water bugs, and anything else that will stay.
All rat snakes will eat eggs if they are available. In fact, many people around here call these snakes chicken snakes because they will eat bitties and eggs. Perhaps we all get lazy when there is food within easy reach without having to work.
Our cats do a good job, though. We had a few problems with mice in the winter when we store food for the cows, but now that all of that is gone and the cows eat only fresh, I haven't seen any.
I like that movie and I dream of going to Tuscany.
Melora,
They were gigamorous and difficult to handle. I, too, hope they stay on the other side of the property.
I guess I am the hard hearted of the crowd, because as much as I like snakes, I like my eggs more. You could hvae turned them into two belts for gifts!
Oh my!I hope they do not return..but if they do there must be someone who would like a new belt on your Christmas list.;-)
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