Last night I was sitting in the basement drinking my first beer. Hamood, my grandson, comes to the door yelling that a snake is in the bird nest. There is a nest in the garage above a light. I went out and found a dead baby bird on the floor. It's head and neck were black and half digested - very nasty. I looked up and there was a little snake hanging from a crack in the boards. I turned a bucket upside down on a step stool and climbed up. How did a snake ever discover these birds and climb to the attic of the garage to get them? I put my fingers over the edge of the nest to see if there were any birds left. Two flew out. Meanwhile, the snake stuck it's head out and I grabbed it. It bent it's neck and grabbed my thumb. Meanwhile, Bill the Cat had grabbed one of the little birds that could barely fly. I dropped the snake into an aquarium and headed for the cat. The bird was about dead but we ended up putting it in a cardboard box. I got the snake calmed down and the boys passed it around with nobody getting bitten. This morning, the snake is gone, the bird is still alive and there are millions of mites on the box and in the nest. I stuck my fingers in for just a second to see if there were any birds left (there wasn't) and my hand was covered with mites. I don't know how I didn't notice them last night. We're afraid we have them in the house. How was your evening?
I have family in Illinois and they tell me they have snakes that will get on the roof in order to get under the eaves and in a birds nest. I don't worry about snakes too much, but there comes a point that I may.
Allan
Kinda boring here. ;D
I just got into some mites on a job this week, creep-ed me out. I went home and washed myself and clothes in Dawn detergent twice.
My day was pretty uneventful compared to that......
...it could have been hornets and a rattlesnake
My favorite cherry tree was under attack by groundhogs or coons breaking out the smaller branches near the ground. So I went to splice some of the broken branches and found a swarm of hornets building a nest in the crown of the tree. Glad to know I can still run almost as fast as I could in my twenties. Here is the little buggers eating all the leaves off our mullberry trees. Photo taken near kankakee illinois.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10357/IMG_20130515_161858_902.jpg)
trim
Where are you located? (hint: put the general area in your bio ;) )
Any chance to get a closer pic of those critters?
Looks like they are doing a number on that tree.
Comepared to yours, mine was pretty boring.
I guess the hornets don't mind the groundhogs for company. :D