Baby quenches her thirst (one), Baby the Bullsnake drinks her fill of water on a warm spring morning, April 2009, photo © 2009 by Jim. All rights reserved.
The other morning Baby the Bullsnake was lying in her empty water dish, breathing hard as if she were panting. (Do snakes pant?) I’d gone into the potting shed to water the geraniums, and as much as I wanted to open her cage and relieve her thirst, I was afraid she’d moved suddenly and send me fleeing from the shed, screaming. So I did what any sane person would do; I called Jim.
Psst…have you ever seen a snake drink?
A snake walks into into a bar and orders a beer. The bartender tells the snake he can’t serve it. “Why not?” asks the snake. “Because you can’t hold your liquor.”
Jim poured the water into her dish while Baby was in it. I expected her to jerk forward and come slithering out. But she lay there, letting the water swirl all around. She got to the task of drinking right away, floating in the water like an alligator, eyes and nostrils above the surface, mouth below. Then she appeared to inhale deeply, breathing the water in as if parched.
Speaking of water, Jim irrigated earlier in the week and ever since a hundred or so Mallard ducks have been frollicking in the field. They really do look like those shooting range carnival games where the little duck swims back and forth, back and forth. These Mallards swim along the channeled grooves dug into the field for the purpose of irrigation.
They’re fun to watch. They dip their heads underwater and shake vigorously. Jim says they’re pulling up the grass to eat. That’s why property owners chase them away, he tells me. I ask him why he doesn’t mind having them. Because they’re part of nature, he says.
A duck walks into a pharmacy and asks for Chapstick. The cashier says, “Cash or credit card.” “Just put it on my bill,” the duck replies.
Ducks in the field (one), pairs of Mallard ducks frollicking in the field after irrigation day, April 2009, photo © 2009 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Ducks in the field (two), you can just make out Mike and Mallary Malloy to the left of the Ortegas, April 2009, photo © 2009 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
-related to posts Baby Wakes From Her Nap, Who Said Snakes Aren’t Cute?, snake awake haiku, and sticks for legs and arms.
ybonesy, it’s so GREEN where you are already! We had 3 inches of snow on the ground this morning and the grass is still so brown, brown, brown here in Minnesota.
It’s cool the way you describe Baby taking a slurp of water. Got to keep the snakes hydrated! I thought I remembered that they drink with their tongues but I must have made that up. I guess they smell with their tongues, eh?
Baby’s really so amazing. I like that first photograph — the reflections and the shadow underneath that’s kind of coil-shaped.
What’s the temp there in New Mexico today? Baby looks all sunny and cozy. It was below freezing when we woke up, now about 38.
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Yeah, I think they smell and feel vibrations with their tongues.
Jim did a great job with the first photo. He had his head and upper body leaning in the cage. He’s so trusting of Baby. I think he reads her well.
I think it’s in the high 50s right now. I just went outside. It’s the kind of warm that if you step into the shade you get chilled. Or I do. But if you’re out working, exerting yourself, it’s perfect.
The weather’s been kind of cool. Yesterday was cold, I thought, with the windchill. Barely broke 50 without the wind, and felt much lower with the wind. But we’ve had a few warm days interspersed with the cool, plus the sun shines an awful lot, so between the sun and the few warm days, the meadow has greened up a lot. It’s only been irrigated twice.
You can see in this photo [LINK] from less than a month ago, the grass was mostly brown.
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I love love love this post. Love the picture of the snake drinking water. I never thought of that before.
Love the picture of the ducks, too, and how I know that they’re swimming, but I can’t see it. Looks like they’re standing in the field.
The jokes broke up the stories just perfectly, too. Silly you.
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Thanks, J.
Yeah, the ducks look like they’re standing. The water gets high in the channeled grooves in the field, so high that it almost forms little ponds. In fact, we have a pond, but only one duck pair seems to swim in it at a time. Jim says the Malloys get the pond and the others give them privacy. He’s more silly than me. 8)
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