I'll look twice the next time I turn the corner to my Silkie pen...

[d.k]

* I would of found my DH lying toes-up at the foot of the pen, had that happened to him!!! Me, I had to kill the biggest indigo I'd ever seen when it got in the house a couple summers ago. Almost crawled over my bare feet!!!!!

!! Don't like killing snakes, but . . . . My garden loppers came in handy that day.

 

[The Chicken Lady]

That was an enormous snake! Was it calm while you tried to cut it out of the wire? Sometimes animals seem to sense that a human doesn't mean them any harm, especially in a rescue situation.

 

[Chellester]

Quote:
It was very calm through the whole ordeal, but I think it realized it was pretty much stuck and helpless. But once I had a hold of behind it's head, I didn't take the chance of letting go until I had released him.

 

[Tutter]

We find gopher snakes sometimes, though not near my hens. The funny thing, though, is that you carry them like I do! I wrap them up my arm to take them somewhere.

The thing we have to be careful about is identifying them as a gopher at a glance, as their patterning looks so much like the local rattlers, it's not funny.

That was a heck of a tangle; glad it all worked out!

 

[Kanchii]

I'm so happy you didn't kill it Chellester! Gorgeous gopher snake. And a big one too!

 

[CarriBrown]

Quote:
They will coil up and wiggle their tail, too!!!

 

[theOEGBman]

Quote:
They will coil up and wiggle their tail, too!!!

Ahh, its not hard to identify them at all! Rattlers have a fatter head & body, and they have a rattle!

 

[Tutter]

Well, OEGBman, it's not always easy to see that when a snake is moving under your feet in a bush....but also, and I think this is interesting, the rattlesnakes here cannot rattle. They have them, but they aren't of any use.

When I lived in the south part of the state, I was used to them rattling, more often than not, but here they never do.

Yes, though, if you can get a good look at the head, for example, you'd know the difference.

 

[theOEGBman]

Quote:

I know! I was just in a hurry so I typed quick. For me, its easy because I love snakes and have researched a ton on them. For people who dont like them, its kind of hard to look at its head when you are running the other way!

 

[d.k]

* There was a thing on TV here that talked about a man in NoFlo that has been the local rattler hunter for 4O years. Problem is that he's hard of hearing. Has killed off the noisier, louder rattlers-- which has lead to newer generations of "warningless" silent rattlers. Not good news, that.