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Oklahoma is known for its abundant wildlife – its deer, buffalo, turkey, sandcranes, snow geese…..and even for those of us who do not live out in the woolly west of our state, the simple Oklahoma garden can provide a plethora of photo opportunities in the animal department. With this being the reality of Oklahoma gardening, I know that I should never be surprised by any critter that might introduce itself, whether on purpose or by accident. My nerves should be steel. My attitude should be blasé as I move a wayward skink or disgusted toad out of my way. It is not “country macho” to freak over the sudden centipede. A startled, “Oh!” might be acceptable, but screaming and running around in circles is definitely not good country etiquette toward those of lessor status on the food chain. It is therefore, with slight dismay that I admit my initial reaction to finding Herbert. I did scream. I did run away, but my redeeming moment came when I stopped, turned around and went back to gaze at Herbert and to introduce myself. It is possible that my first unseemly display of bigotry miffed Herbert as he did not appear to be at all interested in what I had to say. However, he stayed still long enough for me to go get Hubby so that both of us could offer our friendly curiosity. I nearly stumbled on Herbert while I was admiring my strawberry beds. They are full this year and I am anxiously awaiting a crop of the ruby red gems with anticipation. Strawberry freezer jam, frozen strawberries for smoothies and shakes, fresh strawberries on shortcake and in pies – mmm – makes my mouth water. But you want to know about Herbert. I was stepping around the strawberry bed and backed up to one of the peach trees to go to the other end of the garden beds, when I looked down and nearly stepped on Herbert. All 4 1/2 or 5 feet of him. He was fat and had lumps all down his body. He must have had a grand meal of field mice with perhaps a quail egg thrown in for dessert. I snapped a picture but Herbert decided he’d had enough of the two- legged critters that had disturbed his reverie and so he undulated to the nearest peach tree, lifted the front 1/3 of his body up to the bottom branch, hoisted himself up onto said branch and then wrapped his way around ascending branches until he was high enough in the tree to stare me in the eye. I figure that he felt he had a better advantage at that level vs. being on the ground next to my foot. I feel sure that he was well acquainted with the verse out of Genesis where the snake is told, “he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Most people don’t wait to have any heel striking going on and are all about head crushing when it comes to snakes! Herbert probably knew that. So, Herbert wrapped himself cozily among the peach branches and stared at me. That was when I named him Herbert. Don’t ask me why. I don’t even know a Herbert to say he looked like a Herbert. It just seemed right. I took portraits of him and then left him to determine how to unknot himself out of his predicament. He was gone when I checked a few hours later. Herbert is out there now, chasing all the field mice and boppin’ ’em on the head – and then swallowing them. But they won’t be eating my strawberries!! |
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Yup. I’d be a bit surprised myself. We don’t get many snakes in this neck of the woods, and the few we do get are no more than about a foot or two long. You can buy a bigger one at a pet store of course, but they’re not native.
As for strawberries, I had them at my last home and they were great! I tried growing them here, but too many critters kept ruining them. Drats!
P.S.– Good pics!
(:D) Best regards…
Good job going back to take a good look after your initial automatic response. I’m not sure I would have done it. Your pictures are amazing. Did you get that close or use a zoom lens? I confess I don’t really like to think of “Herberts” hanging around in trees.
So glad to meet your Herbert. This is as close as I want to be. However, Herbert looks a lot like our George. We decided to redo a tenant house on our land and make a retreat. This was not the smartest idea we’ve ever had but we loved the end result and decided to add on and move in. We met George when we were working on the tenant house. We think he had made it his home. We had stored hay in it for years and it was a warm place in the winter and a cool shady place in the summer for a Rat Snake. He stayed around after we began tearing out and rebuilding. I named him George and he became so used to us that he would crawl through any opening he could find. He even acted insulted because we were present. I decided to call to him George. We were doing some cleaning up when George came for a visit. “Hi George.” I bravely said. “Come see me” and he started toward me at a fast rate of speed and I did some line dancing steps I hadn’t even learned. My husband who is usually quiet and calm started laughing so hard that I wondered who this stranger was. It was several days later that George left us and headed toward the pond. We never saw him again but we did see his skin in the tree in front of our house. I’m not sure that I want to pick strawberries. I will buy them from our local farm and wish you luck with Herbert.
How do we come up with these names?? I think that Herbert has been here awhile and that he is the same King snake we found in our well house a number of summers ago while the #2 son was still at home. The snake was wrapped around the water neutralizer and so #2 son got him behind the head and put him into a 5 gallon bucket that I held. I didn’t anticipate the snake crawling out of the bucket and around my arm. I didn’t take it too calmly then either. I did a little dance of my own. We finally grabbed him and took him to the wood pile. A couple of hours later he was back in the well house. We just left him there! If that was Herbert, he has grown quite a bit.
I just realized that a snake was in the wreath on our front door and ate the baby birds that were in the nest. I know that this is a part of nature but I do not like it. We have watched the momma bird build the next and sit on the eggs. Last week the eggs hatched and we have been wathching the babies. It really makes me sad.
Yep. That’s hard. What kind of snake was it?
It was probably a rat snake.