During a hot span of days a few weeks ago Jerry found a large black snake sunning itself on a rock on the side of our house. At the time, he couldn’t get a good photo but based on his description I figured it was a black snake or some kind of rat snake, very common around here. He reassured himself it wasn’t venomous by identifying it with an app on his phone and it kept to itself. We didn’t want to disturb it knowing it would keep down the rodent population and it was denning in a place where there wasn’t foot traffic, separated from us by the back fence, so the dog was not going to harass it, either.
We live near the wooded area attached to parkland and deer walk down our street, rabbits chase one another to and from the yards, and songbirds are all over, which is sweet and much better than being awakened by sirens, yelling and semis blasting air horns from the highway at three a.m.
Back to the snake: The next couple of weeks it was cooler and rainy and we didn’t see it again …until today. It not only slithered to the other side of the yard near the tool shed but it also left us shedding. We estimate it is between five and seven feet long and not quite two inches around. The description and photos are below.
Maybe having the snake will keep the rabbits from the garden. 🤞
The image shows a person holding a long, shed snake skin on a glass patio table.
The setting appears to be a sunny day with shadows cast on the ground.
The next image is a black snake in the grass in the middle ground of the photo.
