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good ideas
December 2009 
snake skin
Posted on May 7th, 2009
by 
Bird
Bird
My new wild friend is a black snake that is about six feet long. We've been seeing him a lot since the ground is so wet. Come to think of it, we haven't seen many chipmunks lately. The nature calendar says this is the time of year vernomous snakes are coming out of their dens.
I caught the black snake crawling under the chimney. It shed a layer of his skin nearby. It is still moist. You can even see where his eyes were. I hung it up to dry where the dogs can't get it.
As I watched the black snake disappear, I noticed he passed directly over a copperhead that was sunning in a bare spot of the garden. I would've taken a picture of the poisonous snake, but I don't think you could've seen him. His camouflage was so perfect. I know copperheads are here, but I've only seen them once before in the last ten years. We're going to get more rain this weekend. A lot more rain.
What should you do when you see a copperhead?
I caught the black snake crawling under the chimney. It shed a layer of his skin nearby. It is still moist. You can even see where his eyes were. I hung it up to dry where the dogs can't get it.
As I watched the black snake disappear, I noticed he passed directly over a copperhead that was sunning in a bare spot of the garden. I would've taken a picture of the poisonous snake, but I don't think you could've seen him. His camouflage was so perfect. I know copperheads are here, but I've only seen them once before in the last ten years. We're going to get more rain this weekend. A lot more rain.
What should you do when you see a copperhead?
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Copperheads are such dangerous beasts that we forget how beautiful they are…
Leave him alone if you can. If you have a snake fork you might capture him to walk him further from your cabin… but let him go alive and well.
Yes, I'm just keeping an eye on him. I must say, it made me go down and poke all the holes I plugged with “great stuff” in my aviary. Just checking!
I found a milk snake and a corn snake one year (inside the aviary) when the birds were laying eggs (and we were getting a lot of rain). They were easy enough to wrestle, even in a room full of birds (on the verge of panic).
For better or worse, we walk away from the copperheads knowing they live here in the deep woods on top of the rock bluff too.
That's very wise. So few humans realize that we share this planet.
Namaste, samiyam.
http://has20birds.gaia.com/blog/2008/7/namaste