The Necessary Evil

  It is very rare that I kill a snake.  I figure that they have a place in this old world and here on the Bayou.  It does, indeed, make me sad to hear that folks kill any and every snake they see.  There is just no sense in it. Without snakes doing their snaky things, we would be overrun with rodents, insects and, yes, birds.  Still, when it hits close to home, the evil deed has to be done.  

  Mark and I have been watching a family of mockingbirds for the past few weeks.  The parent birds built their nest very close to where we sit and drink our morning coffee.  We watched as Mama Bird made daily visits to the nest and watched as she sat on the beautiful eggs.  We were overjoyed to hear the faint peeps on the hatching day and, also, hear those peeps grow louder as the birds became stronger.  Mama and Papa Mockingbird worked diligently to find insects to feed the four hungry mouths that yelled "More, more, more!"  The little family soon became "our" family and we wondered if one of the parents was Knox or Shelby.  Those were the names we gave to two orphaned baby mockingbirds that we raised a while back. This was probably not the case but we liked to think it was.  All was going well with the little ones and, today, we realized that the time was near for our little ones to leave the nest.

  A sudden storm whipped into the Bayou and dumped over an inch of rain down upon us.  High winds twisted limbs this way and that causing some to break.  The parent part of us worried about the babies.  We were happy when, as soon as the rain stopped, we were able to peer into the nest and count our babies.  All were accounted for and all seemed well even though they were soaked!  Ahh, yes!  We could rest easy......but not for long.

  The nest is just outside of our living room window.  While doing a bit of work, I could listen to the sweet peeps of the little ones each time the parents brought food.  I knew the birds were happy!  Then those peeps changed.  It took a few moments for me to realize that those screeches were not the same peeps begging for food.  Something was amiss! Like any good mama, I bolted from the house and raced to my babies! Egad! Something was DEFINITELY amiss!  There, entering the nest, was a gray rat snake (or, better known around these parts as a chicken snake!).  The little ones were in dire danger!  If I did not do something and do it quick, the babies would become a meal for the hungry snake! I raced to get the ladder from the nearby garden all the while yelling for Mark to come quick!!!  

  Throwing the stepladder up under the arbor, I searched for the snake. That thing was about the same color and shape as the rose canes that thatched over the nest.  Where was he??? As Mark ran out the door, he hunted for something to use to get the serpent.  The only thing handy was a mop that I had been using to scrub the deck.  Using the handle, he poked into the rose vines hoping to distract the predator.  This seemed to work as I spied the snake slithering toward the opposite side of the arbor.  Hurry!  Get him!!  Mark whacked at the snake with the back of the mop and sent him flying to the ground!  He pinned the snake to keep it from slipping under the daylilies.  Knowing my stance on senseless killing of snakes, he hit it just hard enough to stun it and held it down once again.  Nope, that was not going to do for me.  He gave me the mop and I whapped that snake until he was no more!  No slithering stinker of a snake was going to sup on these siblings!  Ahh, I felt relieved!  This just goes to show that no predator had better cross a mama when it comes to her babies....even if those babies are not even of the same species!  Whack!