Snake!
Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake! Snake!
Hopefully that conveys the level of excitement I felt yesterday when I happened to glance out the kitchen window and saw something unexpected below, next to the bamboo box: Snake!
If you've been reading my blog for a while you probably know that I appreciate all (well, almost all) creatures and welcome them into my garden. You may also know that the two types of creatures highest on my not-yet-seen-here-but-I-really-want-to list are snakes and lizards.
So seeing a snake, even if it's the most common one around -- the eastern garter snake -- is so exciting to me!
This is only the fourth snake that I've ever seen in my yard since I've lived here (25 years now), although to be honest for the first decade I probably wasn't paying attention. Still, four in 15 years makes a snake sighting a rare event indeed.
This snake was not much bothered by me, as I was (obviously) able to photograph it from several angles. I stayed about 6' (1.8m) away and moved slowly so that probably helped keep it calm.
It seemed to be eyeing every hole and nook. Does it live here? Is it looking for a new home? Is it just hunting? (I'll take any two of those three if possible please!)
I'm hoping to see more of it in the days to come!
Snake!
So timely with the release of the new Jungle Book movie too, don't you think?
.
For a change, it is nice to see someone who is not afraid of snakes. Lovely photographs, and I have learnt something new. That species of snake doesn't live here in Croatia.
LOL You'd love it here at The Sticks. We have at least 4 resident snakes (2 Rat, a King, and a garter) including one that lives in our garage! He goes in and out thru the cat door. Plus more lizards than I would care to count (definitely 40+). The other day a common snapper came strolling up the drive.
I realize that little guy is as harmless as can be, but growing up with rattlesnakes my parents made sure we all knew snakes were bad news and we should steer clear. I still have that reaction. Lizards are okay though, I actually like them.
They're beautiful creatures but the surprise factor alarms me, like when they suddenly slither across a path. I've never seen a snake in town in the 30 or so years I've lived here but have seen garter snakes out in the country. Fun to watch!
LOL, I could send you a box of garter snakes! I agree with Outlaw that it's the surprise factor I object to, they're underfoot in the most unlikely places. My son (a grown man) still likes to grab them when he sees them slithering around my garden. Such fun (not!)
Your little snake seemed almost tame. Great pictures. I liked seeing him looking right at the camera. I've lived here in the St Louis area in an older suburb my entire life. Through the years I never saw any snakes in my parents yard nor my own yard until about 3 years ago when I found one in our yard. It was a garden/garter snake, but not striped like the one you have. Last year we had a snake in the house, on the basement steps. He was discovered at the end of March. I don't know if he lived in the house all winter after hitching a ride inside in one of the plants I brought in, or if he found some little hole that he managed to squeeze into the house. He was on the steps closer the basement/kitchen door than he was to the basement floor. Did he fall down the steps from the main floor of the house, or was he somehow slithering up the steps from the basement? My husband found him and thought I was playing an early April Fool's joke on him with a rubber snake, until he went to pick it up and it moved. This year I have already seen two snakes. One unfortunately dead in the street, and the other being carried off by a hawk. Hawks didn't ever used to be around here either.
It is always fun to see all of the creatures you have in and around your garden.
Congratulations to you both!
I love garden snakes. I miss them since I don't have the mint and other tall flowers and greenery near my deck. They loved to shed in my little elephant watering can, and when it was chilly, sun on a piece of slate (slate gets really hot in the sun).
Ooh, the snake brought out a lot of rare or new commenters! I don't think anybody is ambivalent toward snakes -- they love them or HATE them. Rattlesnakes (yikes!), a snake in the basement (yikes again!), surprise slithers -- all great comments and stories!
For whoever said "your little snake" I agree that a 20" garter snake is pretty small, or at least I thought so until today when I had another snake experience (tomorrow's post). :)