Thursday, August 08, 2024

He Who Made Kittens Made Snakes in the Mulch

I will forever be the son of a first and second grade teacher. 

Evidence:  I think it’s perfectly normal to keep a terrarium full of Hercules beetles grubs.  I have three bookcases full of rocks, fossils, shells, skulls, and other odd bits of natural history.

All of this by way of saying while moving two wheelbarrows of mulch in a light rain, I found 9 more black rat snake eggs.  Two were pierced by a pitchfork, as had a single egg I had found earlier in this same pile, but I carefully pulled out 7 more intact eggs, which I have placed in an old coffee tub filled with moistened mulch which, in turn, will sit inside a 5-gallon bucket inside the garage, where I can check on it when I feed the dogs.

Baby snakes?  

Maybe.  

If so, they’ll be released into the small woods next to the shed, where they were found.

If I have to explain why I have them in a tub for observation, all I can tell you is that I am the son of a first and second grade teacher who taught me well.

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