Texas Rat Snake

[Maestro]

My wife was cleaning out our shed when she found two rat snakes. She immediately called me at work to tell me as she had taken a "mental health" day from her job. ;) We had seen one or the other before near the back of our lot that backs up to the pasture behind us, but we simply thought it was hunting in our yard. Apparently it lives in our yard in the shed. Since she was cleaning out the shed, I had to move the snakes. So I grabbed them both and put them in a large container, but before releasing them, I sat one down in one of my gardens for some photo ops. No snakes were harmed in the making of these images. :)

First, the photographer in action....As you can see I didn't waste any time getting out there. I didn't change out of my work clothes.





Results....











After releasing them, they headed straight back to the shed. I don't mind. They keep the vole population down.

[Celebration]

1. To complete this

You need a picture of a rat snake snacking on a vole!

Seriously, these are great. I love it that your snapping the pictures is documented. LOL.

Needless to say, I love the third to the last one the best. Perfect timing.

Once we found the skin of a HUGE rat snake in our rather citified yard. Not knowing what kind of snake it was, I freaked and took it to the zoo to be identified. Breathed a sigh of relief then. For all I know the thing was living under our house. I wasn't going to look.

[Maestro]

6. I would love to get that.

My wife likes to take pics of me taking pictures. Those are all her doing. In fact, I was using my back-up camera with my 100mm macro lens because I honestly did not think I would be able to get as close as I did. She was using my 40D with the 70-200mm zoom attached.

BTW, here is a vole that it eats. My cat found this one for me last year.

[NV Whino]

2. Fabulous

Keep those guys around. They do good work.

[Maestro]

9. Oh yes,

They are staying in my yard for sure. Thanks for looking.

[JeffR]

3. I'd better see #6 in my 2010 DU calendar, preferably on the cover

Or I'm gonna be some pissed off.

[Celebration]

4. No No NO

Number FIVE

[Maestro]

10. You are too kind.

But I do appreciate the words. Thank you.

[flamin lib]

5. Cool! They're really quite pretty particularly if they've recently

shed and have fresh bright colors like this fellow. Too bad they're so bad tempered. I guess if you're a snake, don't get overly large and have no venom it's best to bluff a lot.

[intheflow]

7. The mark of a dedicated photographer is one who doesn't care about kneeling

in grass in dress clothes! :rofl: I love it! Something I'd do myself. :thumbsup:

As for the results, the close up of the snake's head with that iridescent blue is incredible! And the framing of that last shot is great--as is the use of depth of focus. Nice work, Maestro!

[Tindalos]

8. Presumably rat snakes aren't poisonous

Both the voles and the snakes are adorable. I vote you keep both.

[Maestro]

11. Thanks Flamin Lib, Tindalos and Intheflow

Update too...this is actually a Great Plains Rat Snake not the Texas version. :)