Checking nesting boxes

P

Paul Taylor

Active member
Made an evening run to check and clean out nesting boxes here in SC. Bummer to find a snake in one of them and a whole clutch of smashed in 2 boxes. I trim all of the branches away from my boxes but somehow this egg eater made it inside. My woodies seem to be off to a rough start. I still have hens sitting hard in several boxes so I'm hopeful for their success!


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Amazing!


Is that a Water Snake? (You guys have many more big snakes than we do up here in the Northeast...)


I imagine he used the vegetation to support his lower body to reach up over your snake guard.


All the best,


SJS

 
Black Rat snake. We have some grown ones down here! I almost caught one a couple of months ago coming out of a nesting box that looked to be about 7' long! I immediately removed the box, raised the predator guard and reattached the box and a hen is sitting in that box right now.
 
Ahhh!



My Herpetology professor would be disappointed in me.


They are not common hereabouts - although our Herps Atlas shows them in the neighboring town.



https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/44650.html


I have not seen one in decades. When I learned the species - ~1973 - they were still known as Elaphe obsoleta.....


All the best,


SJS









 
Bummer. Snakes are the biggest egg predator here on E.S of Md. also. They can stretch out about full length of their body to reach entry to woody bxs. Without a good wide guard nests don,t stand a chance here.
 
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