You know you’re a hopeless tree-hugger if …
… you are tickled all to pieces when you see three different snakes within 100 yards of your house within as many days.
I pulled back the black plastic to finish up the late spring ritual of putting the wood stacks to simmer and dry under cover over the warm months. There sat this creature–in no hurry to move off–so I ran inside to grab my camera. This one seemed to be molting (notice the eyes look sort of gray and cloudy–they molt the surface of the eye as well, which you’ll notice if you find a shed snake skin. They sometimes get a little testy–even good-dispositioned rat snakes–when they molt.
Notice in the insert the keeled scales. There’s not much pattern, but I think this is a gray rat snake. The other two snakes this week–under the cover over last year’s gardening donkey manure pile–were a king snake and a corn snake within two feet of each other.
Life is good.
A king snake and a corn snake within two feet of each other? I would worry about the safety of the corn snake – you may only have two snakes near your house by now! It must be a good week for snakes – I posted earlier this week about the snake in our barn.
Why does that make you happy? I would run screaming back into the house.
You’d be testy too if your eyeballs were peeling.
Whoa. I knew the eye got milky before molting, but I never associated it with molting of the eye surface!
WOW! I am a little surprised… I was SHOCKED when my husband and I hiked Buffalo Mountain in your area and crossed the “Rattlesnake Crossing” area!