So last week I was up at the garden watering because it was so darn hot, and whilst watering the fig, a large king snake slithered by within inches of my big toe. Haven't seen a snake in the yard for some time, thought the dogs chased them all out, so I was happy to see one there. Shortly after it snaked out of site, there came a small scream-like squeak of rodent horror. No, I thought, it can't be. Finished watering and put the hose down to go see what was up. Not surprisingly, I couldn't find anything, but attracted by the distress squeak, Scooter came over to look too. Very quickly he alerted to a particular spot, sniffed, and backed away. Target located. I parted the tall grass weeds, looked down, and saw.... the bulged out eyes of a very dead little field mouse. Coiled around it was the king snake. Couldn't see it's head, but it noticed me and stopped devouring said rodent, so I left it in peace and watered the pear tree. (After, of course, racing back to the house to grab the camera to get a pic!)
Checked on it a little later to see the last part of the head disappearing down the snake's mouth. (No good pic opportunity.) Then it gave me a glare and disappeared into a hole that was right there. Sneaky snake!
Back to watering I went, little knowing that my reptilian adventures were not over. Went to go take care of the climbing rose that had been blown down in the wildfire-inducing hot high winds that we had been having. I propped up the rose and retied what was left of the broken makeshift trellis, put the water on and decided some serious pruning was in order. Merrily snipping away, I was following a cane back down the maze-like tangle of rose stems, and was confronted by yet another glaring reptile... the biggest alligator lizard I have ever seen! Had to have been over 8 inches long, and it was not happy being awakened from it's nap. It was even less happy when I started prodding it with a stem to move it into a better position for pics! Very glad I had been wearing my anti-thorn gloves, because when these guys decide to go after you, they have an uncanny ability to grab the fold of skin between your thumb and forefinger, and no amount of flailing and shaking will get them to release. The lessons of childhood are hard earned!
"Go away."
This concludes our interspecies interlude. Now back to chickens and all things fowl.
Here are the latest pics of the Serama chicks. They are about 10 weeks now. Female is still pale. Hope she starts laying before we go on vacation. Hate to miss the first egg!
The happy couple. Donut is getting more color every day. Coffee has a longer tail (for now) but she is smaller.
One more not so good pic to show size compared to the big girls.
Checked on it a little later to see the last part of the head disappearing down the snake's mouth. (No good pic opportunity.) Then it gave me a glare and disappeared into a hole that was right there. Sneaky snake!
Back to watering I went, little knowing that my reptilian adventures were not over. Went to go take care of the climbing rose that had been blown down in the wildfire-inducing hot high winds that we had been having. I propped up the rose and retied what was left of the broken makeshift trellis, put the water on and decided some serious pruning was in order. Merrily snipping away, I was following a cane back down the maze-like tangle of rose stems, and was confronted by yet another glaring reptile... the biggest alligator lizard I have ever seen! Had to have been over 8 inches long, and it was not happy being awakened from it's nap. It was even less happy when I started prodding it with a stem to move it into a better position for pics! Very glad I had been wearing my anti-thorn gloves, because when these guys decide to go after you, they have an uncanny ability to grab the fold of skin between your thumb and forefinger, and no amount of flailing and shaking will get them to release. The lessons of childhood are hard earned!
"Go away."
This concludes our interspecies interlude. Now back to chickens and all things fowl.
Here are the latest pics of the Serama chicks. They are about 10 weeks now. Female is still pale. Hope she starts laying before we go on vacation. Hate to miss the first egg!
The happy couple. Donut is getting more color every day. Coffee has a longer tail (for now) but she is smaller.
One more not so good pic to show size compared to the big girls.
