Today, Kendre found a large Black Rat Snake eating an egg in the chicken coop. She wasn't very happy about that so she called on me to deal with it.
(this is not my picture)
It was in the corner of the coop and close to the chicken door so I was concerned that if I opened the outer door and came in with a shovel, it would just make an exit through the chicken pen. So I got the .22 (in an effort to minimize collateral damage) and shot it through the window opening. After that I extracted it with the shovel and finished it off with many a "oooh!" and "yuck!" and "cool!" from the home school class that gathered to watch.
I was doing some reading about it and came across some information related to juveniles. Their coloring is akin to that of the massasauga rattlesnake and they will also "rattle" their tails when threatened (see the OKSnakes link). SO... I think that must be what I found last week and erroneously identified as a rattler. Perhaps today's snake was the mom I had wondered about...
Anyway, I hope this is the last snake related post for a while.
