“E-I-E-I-O!" - The Snake Verse

“With a hiss hiss here, and a hiss hiss there…”

Yesterday evening, as I returned to the house from my walk and photo shoot for a calving update blog post, I nearly stepped on this:

Unfortunately, the batteries in my camera were gasping their last charge and I had forgotten to stick a couple in my pocket. As a result, the zoom wouldn’t work without shutting down the camera. I had to creep up close and personal for these shots. Apparently, the snake was agreeable to being the subject of a photo op because it didn't move, not even when I opened the compartment to reposition the dying batteries between shots!

I’d never seen a snake like this one and Bill couldn’t identify it either. We researched his Pocket Guide to Kansas Snakes and discovered it was a king snake, which both of us had heard of.

Later we worked on a new iris and daylily bed, laying down weed mat and covering it with mulch. As Bill scooped up mulch into the loader on his tractor, he saw white, oval-shaped objects.

He thought they might be snake eggs, so broke one open and found a baby, possibly a rat snake. He went back to the Pocket Guide and verified his theory that it was a rat snake. By then, decent light was gone but I was able to get pictures this morning. Yes, I had fresh batteries and used the zoom!

Interesting marking on the head!

Rat snakes are primarily constrictors and feed on rodents and birds. Judging by the number of eggs Bill found in the mulch pile, I doubt that many rodent families set up housekeeping there. Or, if they did, those snakes are well-fed! One interesting note: The female rat snake can lay from three to thirty eggs at a time. Wow! No wonder there were so many eggs in that mulch pile!

I remarked to Bill the markings on the rat snake are so close to those on a rattlesnake, if I encountered one in the yard it would scare the crap out of me!

“…Here a hiss, there a hiss, everywhere a hiss hiss!”