A few days ago I encountered this handsome black rat snake on the rocks outside the little greenhouse. I noticed how shiny he/she was and looked for a recently shed skin in the greenhouse -- always a favorite place for blacksnakes to perform this maneuver. No skin and I forgot about it . . .
. . . till yesterday when I was heading for the potting bench behind the house and put my hand on one of the uprights of the gate.
Yikes! That WAH! moment that kicks in as the monkey brain screams SNAKESNAKESNAKE! Then the reasoning part of my mind took over and I enjoyed the beauty of the shed skin, noting how the tail was hooked around the latch so the snake could wriggle free of the old skin like a fat lady peeling off her Spanx.
Only a lot more elegantly.
6 comments:
That's pretty neat ... to read about on a blog ... far away from me ...
Glad it was you not me, my monkey brain is still screaming! But you did capture a great combo, the living snake and the nest pics I've ever seen of the old snakeskin. Wonder what old wives might have used it for, and I just bet there was something they did with em!
Best!
When we were young, my brother and I were always on the lookout for snakeskins. We always had quite a few at summer's end, much to my mother's dismay. Our biggest treasures were rattlesnake rattles. Those were the days.
Marvelous! Sure wish we had a big ole blacksnake around here. :)
That is so amazing. And you describe that "Yikes" feeling so well. Smart snake. And smart nature.
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