One of our resident Black Snakes has been sniffing around the garage door and we keep chasing it away. Don’t want to open the car door and find this guy curled up in the driver’s seat.
Tag Archives: snakes
First copperhead of the season
Black Snake
The door in the photos below is to my tool room in the Annex. Guarding the door is our resident Black Snake, Murray. 
Wikipedia assures me Murray is a “good” snake (my word, not theirs);
Rat snakes live in a variety of habitats; some overlap each other. Rat snakes are excellent climbers and spend time in trees. They live in habitats ranging from a rocky hillside to flat farmland. It prefers heavily wooded areas and is known for having excellent climbing ability, including the ability to climb the trunk of large mature trees without the aid of branches; the snake is also a competent swimmer. During winter it hibernates in dens, often with copperheads and timber rattlesnakes. This association gave rise to one of its common names, pilot black snake, and the superstition that this nonvenomous species led the venomous ones to the den.
While Black Snakes are harmless, I give this guy a wide birth because… well, he’s a snake. Like the article says, where you find Black Snakes, you’ll find copperheads. I killed at least a dozen last summer. Fortunately, they tend to stay on the ground. Like Indiana Jones, I hate snakes. But they’re part of rural living, so…
Snake!
Surrounded by woods, we usually seem some Copperhead snakes every spring and summer. I hate snakes. And when I see ’em, I kill ’em, lest they bite one of our dogs. Not that hard to chop off a head if you happen to have shovel or hoe handy (you never do). By the time you drag the dog inside and find an implement, the snake has escaped.
A couple of years ago I bought a “snake grabber” and keep it next to our deck since that’s where they tend to hang out. You can grab the bastards and lock the grabber while you find something to send them to snake heaven.
It’s an unpleasant experience and a while back I purchased a .22 revolver and loaded it with snake rounds. Instead of a single lead slug, it’s like a tiny shotgun shell filled with little pellets. Can’t miss, right? Well, yeah, you can. Once a year I take the pistol out and fire a round, just to keep in practice.
This was less than three feet away and I managed to miss the snake’s head. So our first line of defense will probably be the grabber and a shovel.
UPDATE June 5, 2021: Riley spotted a Copperhead early last evening. About 2 feet long. Used the snake grabber to hold the thing while I sent it to snake heaven with a shovel.
Snake attacks helpless birds
I took the dogs out to do their business earlier today and, on the way back, I happened to look up in the tree we walk under a dozen times a day. I saw what I thought was a black piece of plastic until it moved in an unmistakably serpentine way. It was a big-ass snake, about 15 feet off the ground.
As I looked closer I saw the snake was wrapped around a bird nest, which explained the frantic activity of some robins. They were darting in for a peck at the snake, trying to scare it off. With no luck at all. (I found it interesting that they were getting help from cardinals and other birds) The snake looked like he might be digesting something.
If you are a snake lover or naturalist or one of those guys who pick up snakes, you can skip the rest of this post. It’s just gonna piss you off. Let’s go to the video [CAUTION: Adult language]:
Even if I’d been willing to get on a ladder and grab the snake, it would probably have brought down the nest. But friends, that was never a consideration.
And even as I fired little steel balls into the tree, the adult birds didn’t flinch or move away. They stayed right by the nest. I kept thinking I’d hit and kill one of them but I didn’t.
If this black snake had stayed out in the woods, stuffing himself with rodents and moles, he’d still be alive. But he decided to climb up my tree and eat some defenseless baby robins.
Why I don’t do brush piles (Copperhead)
There are lots of positives to living on a few acres of wooded land. It’s quiet and peaceful. No traffic. The sort of environment where you find deer, rabbits, turtles, wild turkeys and… snakes. (shudder) I am not fond of snakes.
This was found at the bottom of a pile of brush that the lads are clearing out today. I wasn’t there when Mark picked this copperhead up and declined his offer to “milk” the venom.
Following this little show-and-tell, the snake was dispatched with a spade. Yes, I know there’s never just one snake. [larger photo]
