I was pitchforking some wood chips this evening with the goal of covering over the growing pile of shattered sunflower seeds under the bird feeders.
Flipping over the wheelbarrow revealed two *large* Dark Fishing Spiders, as well as a Southern Black Widow. I flicked the Fishing Spiders off and crushed the Black Widow — a killer of one of my dogs some years back.
After forking wood chips into the wheelbarrow, I noticed what looked like a smooth white stone.
It wasn’t a stone, but a slightly leathery reptile egg.
Unfortunately, while forking out the wood chips, I had ripped one side of the egg.
I carefully rooted around in the mulch, but there was nothing. This was a single egg, and it was no longer viable.
Always curious, I opened up the egg on the porch and found a small snake and embryonic fluid inside. My guess is that this is a Black Rat Snake egg.
I will be more careful when checking a larger wood chip pile I have on the other side of the yard
No comments:
Post a Comment