Mid-morning Visitor!

 One thing I have learned from years of life in the country is that there is ALWAYS wildlife around but we are often not in the right place at the right time to see it.  Sometimes years will pass without seeing a snapping turtle in the creek or a salamander in the yard or a snake in the grass. Toads are not uncommon and birds are somewhat easy to track because of their sounds, the deep hoo-hooing of an adult great horned owl, the hungry squawk of a juvenile GHO, the shrill whinny of a screech owl or, once in a great while, the "who-cooks-who-cooks-for-you" call of the barred owl.  Occasionally we'll find a newly hatched fox snake looking for shelter in the garage or a bull snake that has made one of the outbuildings his hunting ground.  We welcome them all, as they are our best rodent hunters and are not aggressive.  But years can pass without a personal encounter.

So this morning, after our early encounter with the juvenile great horned owl (see previous post),  I was surprised to hear Pete come running into the house (at our age we don't run for anything).  He said, "Come, look!  A snake!"  Grandson Lucas was here helping me with VBS preps so we were immediately up and out the door - we haven't seen a snake here in a couple of years, even though we know they are here.  Pete had been on the golf cart north of our old garage when he saw it.  I was surprised it was still there when we got there...until I discovered the reason it was still there was that one of the tires was holding it down!  Poor snake. Pete moved the cart and the snake, somewhat dazed, slithered away, every so often giving a shake to its head like it was trying to get a kink out.  It was a good sized snake, maybe 3 - 3.5 feet long.  A fox snake, probably one of last years hatchlings.  It took shelter in the thick Virginia creeper vines hugging the side of the garage.  

I happened to wonder, how many snake eggs are in a clutch of fox snake eggs?  Turns out there are a LOT! 6-29 by some accounts.  Of course not all survive but it did encourage me that if we have a breeding population of them on the farm, there are likely several more around.  May they live long and prosper. 

Here's a video of the stunned snake making his getaway.