We have an arbor that is covered with Jasmine and Honeysuckle. It isn’t flowering yet and looks pretty shabby. We trimmed it back a while back and it hasn’t recovered yet.
Our resident Brown Thrasher (Tina) and her “husband” Ike have been the same nest inside the arbor for years. Last year her 4th nest was destroyed by something. We felt it was probably a snake.
She came back this year and we saw Ike and Tina both checking the arbor out, but they must have decided not to use the nest this year. We felt bad because we enjoyed watching her raise her babies.
Yesterday, I decided to check out the old nest again and also wanted to see if they had made a new nest inside the arbor. I got all the way inside and was looking around when I saw a big face looking back at me. Now, anyone who knows me knows, I will swim with sharks and alligators, but don’t let me see a small tree frog or I’ll freak out. My first thought was it was a big frog. I went and got Al and this is what he found.
He thinks it was a Black Racer.
He “wrangled” that snake for probably 15 minutes trying to get it out of there.
We know snakes are part of the environment and we don’t believe in killing them, however, this snake was messing with MY baby birds and he had to go!
Al isn’t afraid of snakes particularly, but he isn’t fond of touching them. He was trying to remove it without touching it. I didn’t think he would be able to catch it. The snake was pissed off and coiled up and was vibrating his tail just like a rattle snake. The snake was trying his best to bite Al, but he assured me it was not a poisonous snake, but still, I was worried. Of course, I watched from 100 feet away, sitting on my golf cart with it in gear ready to make a quick escape:)
He finally got it out from the arbor.
Next step was getting it in a bucket so we could transport it to a new home. I know many people kill any snake they find, but these snakes are really beneficial. They kill mice and rats and also will kill rattle snakes. I just don’t want them killing my birds!
SUCCESS
3 comments:
That Al is a real man! You better hang on to him because you may come across another snake some time. That snake looked HUGE to me. People always say those black snakes are good - I don't think the world would miss one snake though - the only good snake is a dead snake if it is around me but, of course, I'd have to have someone other than me kill it because I'd probably be on my golf cart with my foot on the gas for a fast escape.
Karen you mentioned in our blog that you hate frogs. I'll take on one of the little frogs we saw in the tarp on the shower any day over that snake. He sure looked big.
Ruth
www.travelwithkevinandruth.com
Ruth,
I'm not a big fan of snakes either, but those frogs you showed in the shower gave me the willies! I'm more afraid of frogs than anything else I can think of. I don't know why.
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