He is "King of the Yard"!

  She has all of the luck...especially when it comes to finding really neat snakes.  Darling Daughter, Elizabeth, sent me a photo the other day asking for an identity of a small snake she found in her yard.  "Is this a king snake?" she queried?  Yep...it definitely is and a beauty at that!  The crazy thing is, this snake was found one frigid morning when snakes should all be in their warm, cozy beds!  This little guy was not doing too good with the cold so Elizabeth warmed him a bit then covered him with some nice mulch.  That should suffice to get the snake through the cold morning.  Hopefully, the little rascal will find a much better wintering spot than the middle of their yard.  Snakes are ill-equipped to handle the icy weather we have been having.

  The king snake she found is one of the best critters to have in the yard.  A king snake not only rids the place of all sorts of pests, it will also happily munch on other snakes including venomous ones.  King snakes are immune to other snakes' venom so they have little worries when seeking a snake out as prey.  They constrict their prey to kill it before swallowing it but can eat snakes as nearly as large as themselves.  Besides other snakes, a king snake's diet consists of insects, lizards, rodents, birds and eggs. 

  After talking with Elizabeth about her lovely little snake, I sat back and thought of how proud I am of her.  You know you have raised your daughter right when she tries to save a snake even before she knows what type it is.  That little critter could not find a better place to live than right where it is.