Snake….a snake….it’s a snake!*

Well…two snakes, actually. The last day my parents were here, we were standing outside oogling ducklings when my dad says, “Is that a hose across the driveway or a snake?” I turned around expecting to see some little garden snake skittering across the gravel, but no. This was a Snake with a capital EEP. She was probably five feet long (I said six, my mom said four, so we compromised at five). That’s a lot of snake. We watched her slither across the driveway and into the large pine tree, where she disappeared for a while. After a few minutes, though, she reappeared on the other side of the tree and slid into the grass.

I always figured I’d be able to see snakes when I was walking through the grass. The only way I could tell that this five-foot long, shiny black snake was in the grass was because the blades of grass were moving gently. Yikes.

I don’t know where she was going, but the snake was definitely on a mission. She kept on going across our property in pretty much a straight line. Every now and then she’d pause for a few minutes…and then start up again… Andy finally woke up and grabbed the camera. By that time, though, the snake was mostly hidden in the flower bed. He still managed to get a nice shot of her head. Andy said she’s a rat snake.

Yesterday, Andy and I went back out to pick more raspberries and to check out an apple tree I’d seen at the front of the property. The apples are very small and not so tasty. We decided to let the wildlife continue to enjoy them as they had apparently been doing. There was a path through the grass up to the tree and a spot under the tree where someone appeared to have been napping.

We picked about two quarts of berries and headed back up towards the house. After the rat snake adventure earlier in the week, you can bet I kept my eyes to the ground. Andy was in the lead and he marched right past the second snake of the week. We think he’s some sort of water snake, but we’re not sure.

I yelped and did a bit of a dance. Andy was startled by my yelping and turned around and saw me pointing at the snake, and I think that startled him a bit more. I thought at first it was a pile of dried up poo…but no….it was a snake. He appeared to have eaten recently, and Andy said he even saw the food lump moving. Ew. I was very proud of my snake-spotting skills and even more proud that I did not shriek like a little girl.

*http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/