Of Thirsty Snakes And Ducks With Dry Bills

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.

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Baby Wakes From Her Nap

Basking Baby, Baby the Bullsnake wakes up from winter hibernation on a warm, sunny March morning, photo © 2009 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.

Guess who woke up?

Baby the Bullsnake emerged from her winter coil and slithered in all her elongated glory around the cage this past Thursday morning. Jim called me out to look, and as soon as I got near she glided in my direction and madly flicked her tongue about.

Did she wake up hungry?

It was a perfect day for coming out of deep slumber. The sun was strong and her space warm. Since keeping about a dozen geraniums and other annuals in the room, her potting shed house has a loamy smell and feel.

                  

                                     

                                                         





Bullsnakes are one of the largest snakes in the U.S. They are non-venomous, but since they tend to look like rattlesnakes (both have yellow scales with brown markings) and coil and shake their tails when provoked, people sometimes mistakenly slaughter the bullsnake.

But the truth is, the bullsnake is beneficial to the environment, and especially to farmers. Because of their size—they can grow up to almost six feet—the bullsnake eats fairly large mammals, such as rats and the destructive gopher. (In fact, bullsnakes are a sub-species of the larger gopher snake species.)

Bullsnakes get their name from the fact that they sometimes make a loud snorting noise, like a hiss but with deep breathing put into it. (When Baby does this she reminds me of those accordian-like contraptions used to stoke a fire. Her whole body contracts and expands, contracts and expands, as if she’s hyperventilating.)

Bullsnakes come out of hibernation when temperatures rise in spring. It’s important their homes have both shady areas and sunny so they can move to the shade in the hottest parts of the day and into the sun when it’s cool. (Snakes are attracted to heat, including that warmth that tends to accumulate on a road black-top, which is why we often see snakes run over by cars.)

Baby will soon be getting her first meal of the season—a live rat from the pet store. I imagine she’ll be hungry. She’ll squeeze the rat with her body and then swallow it whole, head first. She won’t chew it, but rather it will move through her body and be digested over a matter of days. And, as it expands her body, her skin will likely start shedding. And Jim or one of the girls will call me to come look as the old skin gets left behind and leaves behind a shiny brilliant new layer.

Thus begins another year of living with and being fascinated by our most unique pet. Welcome to wakefulness, Baby!



           

Resources

• Reptiles and Amphibians of Minnesota (QM, you need to keep an eye out for bullsnakes in your part of the world)
• Bullsnakes Are Beneficial Environmentalists!
• New Mexico Snakes — recognizing the poisonous ones and controlling them around homes
• Frank Thayer — Reptiles
• Snake Shedding 101

-Related to posts Who Said Snakes Aren’t Cute?, snake awake haiku, and Meet Baby!

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10 Things I Learned Last Weekend (Solstice x Number)

scratch paper haiku, written with the shaft of a feather,
Minneapolis, Minnesota, Summer Solstice 2008, all photos © 2008
by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

              

ONE        1 frog + 1 toad =
                2 reams of good luck

Saw two frogs last weekend. One was this size (a toad). And one looked like this (a frog). The tree frog hopped out of the pond at Summer Solstice and spent some time with us on dry land. I now know the difference between a frog and a toad.

 

 

               

TWO       2 insurance adjusters + 1 friendly couple + 1 smiling contractor =
               1 new roof

The toad appeared right as our contractor and two insurance adjusters (a husband and wife team from Kansas) arrived on the scene to inspect the roof. I saw that as a good omen. The toad’s skin looked like the bark of a tree. I thought it was a moth and brushed it off the deck table. It jumped. That’s when I knew it wasn’t a moth. I slid the slick, 4-color binder with the roof estimate under her belly and moved her down under the garden day lilies. She had bright orange skin where the leg meets the body, the same color as the day lilies.

 

 

 

THREE    12 hours + 1 summer storm + 1 green tree frog =
               13 moons + 100 rocks + 1 gargantuan chorus

The second frog was a single green tree frog. She strolled proudly by the Solstice fire ring near a tumbled pile of birch, calling back and forth to her friends in the pond. One frog sang out. A few thousand returned the favor. This continued long into the night.

 

 

 

FOUR      1 summer solstice here =
                1 winter solstice there

Self-explanatory. We are one world.

 

 

 

FIVE       1 fireside story from 2 shaman lips =
               4 Tibetan nagas

Nagas are snake spirits, cobras. They live in or near water — deities of the primal ocean and of mountain springs; also spirits of earth and the realm beneath it — dragons of lakes, ponds, and oceans. They protect the Buddha and like to come up through the feet. Buddha took his sword and cut a valley into 4 parts = 4 Great Nagas. Nagas eat frogs.

 

 

 

SIX          1 drumbeat in the rain =
                10 drums in dry heat

It poured in the middle of Solstice. We stood under a cluster of cedars, watched sheets of rain crest over the pond, and kept drumming. The skin of a hand-stretched drum changes tone with the humidity. When the air is saturated with water, one beat can resonate deeply and hang in the air. Close to the fire again, the skin pulls hard at the wood frame. The mallet bounces off hide in short bursts of sound.

 

 

 

SEVEN     shedding 1 old skin =
                much harder than you think

 

 

 

EIGHT    4 marshmallows + a 2-pronged stick =
               3 marshmallows splat on the ground + 1 mean S’more

 

Hershey’s S’mores (Indoors or Outdoors)

4 graham crackers, broken into halves
2 Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars (1.55 oz), broken into halves
4 marshmallows

Outdoors: Place chocolate bar half on graham cracker half. Toast marshmallow over grill or campfire (supervise kids if they’re doing this); place over chocolate. Top with second graham cracker half. Gently press together. (Recipe from the cardboard on the inside of a Hershey bar)

Indoors: Place graham cracker half on paper towel; top with chocolate bar half and marshmallow. Microwave at Medium (50%) in 10 second intervals until marshmallow puffs. Immediately top with remaining graham cracker half. Gently press together. Repeat, serve immediately. Makes 4 servings.

 

 

               

NINE      1 alligator + 1 panther =
               get along just fine 😉

 

 

               

TEN        25,000 humans + stones aged at 3000 years B.C. + 1 Salisbury Plain =
               Summer Solstice at Stonehenge 

Some people’s Solstices are way wilder than mine! Stonehenge, on the Salisbury Plain about 90 miles southwest of London, was built over three phases between 3,000 B.C. and 1,600 B.C.  Cremated remains and burials continued for at least 500 years. It is estimated that at least 240 people were buried at Stonehenge. More than 750,000 people visit every year.

 

 

                                 

 

 BONUS:  Incubate magic

 

scratch paper haiku

train whistle marshes
summer solstice grabs the light
and turns it to dark

 

 

 

-posted on red Ravine, Friday, June 27th, 2008

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