We got home from the hospital in St. Louis Tuesday evening about 5:30 p.m. It took me a while to get the suitcases and all our junk in the house. A little while later my hubby asked me if I could please go out and check on his birds just to make sure they were okay and didn’t need any feed. I checked on the ones in the back of the shed and then proceeded to the white coop.
They are the sweetest pigeons and my hubby loves them…
As I walked around the corner, I spotted one of the Old German Owls laying in the wire fly pen. As I got closer I saw something pretty creepy…a big black snake was coiled at least two times around the body of the dead bird. It pretty much freaked me out so I quickly opened the door to the coop, checked on the birds inside, then hightailed it back to the house.
This was NOT the time to go grab my camera and snap any pictures…so I’m just showing some of the pretty ones of his birds.
I had to break the news to my hubby and of course he had to come and check things out for himself. I put his boots on his feet and slowly and carefully helped him out to the coop. He looked at it and said it was a rat snake and it was trying to swallow the bird, but he had only gotten its head and neck in his mouth. The wide shoulders of the bird were stopping the snake from swallowing the rest of the bird. The snake had apparently slithered its way into the fly pen which is made from 1 x 2″ wire. (There were 2 young babies right by the door and we don’t know why the snake chose this bigger bird. The babies would have been much easier to capture. We don’t know why the young bird didn’t fly away either… usually when they get scared they fly up on a higher perch.) Now that the bird was partly down the snakes throat, he was too fat to escape through the wire. The whole thing was pretty much creeping me out.
My hubby walked with me to his tools in the shed and showed me a “grabber” like tool and his brush axe… (sort of like a long handled machete.) I realized it was going to be me who was going to have to take care of this, and my heart started pounding. My hubby took a screw driver and opened up the top door to the flypen and carefully used the grabber to grab a hold of the snake. Of course the bird was stuck down his throat. He lifted the snake and bird out of fly pen and laid them on the ground, trying not to excite the snake too much and shouted at me, “start chopping!” I was like a mad woman, chopping the tar out of that snake. He wasn’t going anywhere as long as I had that axe in my hand. It was pretty gross, but it had to be done.
When it was in several pieces (sorry…) I used the pitchfork to scoop it all up and throw it on the compost pie.
The bird that was killed was my hubby’s very first baby born after he got these birds. It was pretty sad for him.
I was thinking of what Linda mentioned about meeting me and me being so “adorable” and Linda, I just want you to know… I don’t think I looked that adorable “doing the deed!” I hope it’s a long time before I have to do that again! It still gives me the willies!!!
Well, that’s not a great post, but at least it’s not a question! :o)
Thanks for sticking around while I was “pretty much gone.”
Things are still a little unorganized around here as we are having home health care nurses come by 2 to 3 times a week.
We are still very tired and when my hubby is sleeping, I try to lay down too. Soon I’ll be back the way I used to be…
See you soon,
Blessings, Jeanne
Your pigeons are beautiful–thanks for posting the pictures of those!
As to the rat snake and his prey, well, let’s just say his eyes were bigger than his mouth!! (Did that help, to make a joke out of it?!)
Boy, it’s amazing what we can do if we really HAVE to, isn’t it?! It’s just too bad it had to be that particular owl that the snake chose.
I posted on your yesterday’s post (my most beautiful place is the Upper Peninsula of Michigan), but that post didn’t come thru until tonight–24 hours late! I haven’t seen an email about this blog post–just noticed a new one had shown up in the sidebar when I was looking at yesterday’s!
I’m sure this is going to be a very busy time for you both, as you adjust to George’s “new normal”. I remember how it was after my husband’s colostomy surgery. Prayers continue.
You are so brave. I would have freaked out completely. I have seen a black snake crawl into a chicken’s nest box and slither around her to get the eggs. She never even flapped her wings. It was like she was hypnotized. I was too as I just left him to finish his breakfast too afraid to try to catch him.
I love the owls. They are so beautiful. Glad you can help George take care of them. You are a Proverbs 31 wife!
Thanks for keeping us updated on George’s progress. Prayers continue.
Oh no what a horrible thing to find while checking on Georges beautiful birds. I say chop away girlfriend I can’t blame you at all! Sorry ladies but if it’s in my yard it’s chop chop; I like my yard snake free!
So happy to hear you are getting rested and back to normal. Prayers continue for you and George.
I thought about yesterdays question alot. I always find something beautiful wherever we travel but in my humble opinion the prettiest places have a few things in common, there is always water… ocean, lake, river, canal and there is always lots of greenery. I love flowers! It’s peaceful and calming to me. Well have a great day!
hugs
Ingrid
Interesting. I didn’t think you had posted yesterday as I did not receive a notification. Then today, there was a post. Read it and found that it was yesterdays and that there was one for today too. So that is how I discovered your post. Why would yesterdays post show up today and today’s not be here at all?
Anyway, to comment on the beautiful places, I would think that Yosemite is one of the top places. Amazing waterfalls and scenery. I’ve been several times. It is so popular that they have had to ban cars and limit the number of visitors. It is a very special place.
I am very sorry to hear of the demise of George’s bird and of the rat snake. It would be very interesting to know exactly the snake type. We have Gopher snakes out here, but I have never heard of them going after birds. It doesn’t sound like yours was a very greedy beneficial snake. I’m just curious. How big was it? Length? You’ll laugh at this, our son in law actually bought something that you use to grab snakes with. Because, they live by open space here in CA, and they have Rattlesnakes along with three young children. He put it to good use the other day when he grabbed a young one. You can call a place that comes and picks them up and relocates them to remote places. I even saw a photo taken of a pair of shoes left on a front porch with a rattler curled up inside. That was here. After the October fires, wildlife has moved in closer to where humans reside. Always check your shoes. 🙂
I’m very happy to hear that George still has some birds around. I guess I thought you had sold all of the birds. My dad too loved birds and raised many. That was back in the 1930’s.
Oh my gosh, Jeanne! This was NOT the kind of excitement I was thinking you had when I read the title for today! And now another snake story! We had 3 large snakes slither across our yard last week that were very big, patterned, and maybe 4 to 5 feet long. I thought for a minute there that they had escaped from the zoo! And they got to my lilies by the fence and started fighting! I’ve never seen anything like that before, but I was so startled, that I got the hose and sprayed them just to get them away. The newspaper said a lot of people are noticing snakes come out all of a sudden, and it is because it warmed up so fast, right after our cold April. They usually do it more gradually. Poor you, I don’t envy you at all! You probably didn’t feel too adorable after that! They are such pretty birds, and I can see why George likes them.
Had to go looking for your blog today too. Wonder what is going on.
Not what I expected — not what you expected either. On some days you get to be cute and adorable, on some smart and hard working, and on a few, you have to be fierce and dangerous. I cannot say I envy you this experience. Your bird photos are wonderful. The first two could be paintings.
I’ve been thinking about fashions that I’m grateful no longer to see. I’ve enjoyed most of them, but as I was out driving the other day I saw one that made me think of that question. The fashion for falling down pants that somehow stay up, no matter how precarious they look has not yet disappeared completely, and it is past time that it did. A lot of fashion makes women look silly, but this is one male fashion that needs to go the way of the leisure suit. Parachute pants is a fashion I had to look up. Though I was teaching at a college during that era and working in a well-used library, I don’t recall them at all.
As for huge shoulder pads, I have knitting books from that era and they still look — maybe not good exactly — but as if they are making a fashion statement.
The most beautiful place I’ve been — lots of competition there. The one I’m choosing as the best so far is Grand Teton National Park. If you haven’t heard of it or seen it, look it up. It’s definitely worth the trip.
Oh Jeanne I’m so sorry you had to be faced with that awful snake! Just imagining it gives me goose bumps, I’m not a wuss but I really hate snakes. My husbands job takes him out of town a lot and I have had to take care of some “critters” but nothing lake that. You have to do what needs to be done – you are amazing.
The photos of George’s pigeons are beautiful. My grandson and his dad raised racing pigeons for a number of years. I never knew there were so many different types of pigeons.
Here’s to an uneventful weekend for you and George.