Discovered a foot long snake in one of my bird houses this morning with a "suspicious" bulge in it's middle. Don't know what type of snake but pulled it out with a stick and put it on the ground before I thought to get a photo of it. I suspect that it ate the last baby wren that hadn't fledged yet. The rest of them I'm hearing in nearby trees screaming for food. Their flight feathers were coming in last week when I looked.

BUT this is a bluebird house on a metal pole so how in the heck did the snake get up there??

It must have been pretty hungry. Need to do some research on snakes and how they find prey.

Update: it looks like a juvenile eastern rat snake. Commonly mistaken for a copperhead.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2024 03:11PM by Lizabeth.

Lizabeth,

Here ya go!

[www.youtube.com]

[www.cnet.com]

Robert

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Robert M
Lizabeth,

Here ya go!

[www.youtube.com]

[www.cnet.com]

Robert

That is cool...thanks!

The Ciiircle of Liiiiife!
--Elton John

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Acer
The Ciiircle of Liiiiife!
--Elton John

As long as they don't eat bluebird babies I'm fine with it...debating wether to put a cone baffle up or not.

Where is out resident snake/Duran Duran lover Stephanie?

We put a cone baffle on our bluebird house post and the snake still made it to the nesting box. If you find something that works, please post it.

Let nature work its magic. Snakes got to eat.

….also very good about getting on planes…

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I reject your reality and substitute my own!

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PeterW
We put a cone baffle on our bluebird house post and the snake still made it to the nesting box. If you find something that works, please post it.

It doesn’t matter the orientation of the cone, if the snake is long enough to anchor itself to the pole AND sufficiently reach the lip of the cone it can defeat it. They are amazing animals.

I commend you, Lizabeth, for not killing the snake. Most people are inclined to do so.

To help prevent snake predation on the birds, put the feeder out away from places the birds would nest. Excess scattered seed tends to draw mice and rats, and hence the rat snakes. It won’t completely prevent it, but it helps.

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Diana

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PeterW
We put a cone baffle on our bluebird house post and the snake still made it to the nesting box. If you find something that works, please post it.

It doesn’t matter the orientation of the cone, if the snake is long enough to anchor itself to the pole AND sufficiently reach the lip of the cone it can defeat it. They are amazing animals.

I commend you, Lizabeth, for not killing the snake. Most people are inclined to do so.

To help prevent snake predation on the birds, put the feeder out away from places the birds would nest. Excess scattered seed tends to draw mice and rats, and hence the rat snakes. It won’t completely prevent it, but it helps.

I like snakes so it was an easy decision. And the wrens will have another nest of babies soon if not two before the summer is over. Don’t have bird feeders up near the bird boxes. So it’s a nature thing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2024 12:35PM by Lizabeth.

Just the other week I saw a black rat snake 30 feet up in a tree and climbing. Probably a nest up there. And a few days ago I saw a squirrel running off with a nestling. It's a jungle out there.

I don't know how near the nearby trees are, but a snake could conceivably hang from a tree branch and reach the bird house that way.

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I know it's a different snake, but I don't think more has ever been done to control a snake than what they have done in Guam with the Brown Tree Snake, and they have really pretty much failed. You might be able to get some ideas though.