Sunday, April 26, 2026

A wild kingdom moment

 

 

A strangely behaving curve-billed thrasher alerted me to an issue.  Seeing him jumping around squawking and flapping, I went back inside and grabbed the camera.  Once I walked back out, the thrasher perched on the blue heron statue to watch the conclusion of the drama unfold from there.

 

The bird had already harassed the 5-foot-long indigo snake enough that he had begun leaving by the time I got there.  Here is a shot of his front end, but the head was obscured.  You can see the rest of the snake still curled up in the garden.

 

And here is the back half disappearing into a hole underneath the side of our shed.

 

Indigo snakes are beautiful and they’re beneficial too, eating rats and mice.  We’re very glad to have an indigo snake at our house, looking glorious and reducing the rat and mouse population (as well as having the neighborhood roadrunner bird who helps keep down the population of house sparrows).

 

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