"A Snake in the Bush"

   Son has a way of always twisting sayings around to suit the current situation.  When I found a sweet rat snake hanging out in the deutzia bush, his comment was "A snake in the bush is better than two in the hand." lightly paraphrasing the "A bird in hand is worth two in the bush." adage.  Had this been a venomous snake, I would have had to agree but, truth be told, I hold these snakes a good bit.  They are docile and quite lovely to have in the gardens.

  I came to notice the snake simply because of the "Critter Neighborhood Watch" group let up a huge ruckus.  Thinking that Bat, the cat, was on the prowl, I slipped outside to shoo him from his hiding spot.  Bat could not be found so I started tending the herbs.  Once again, the blue jays started yelling near the blueberry bushes so, once again, I searched the area.  This time, instead of finding that black cat lurking beneath the bushes, I found my lovely friend in the "feather tree".  Ahh, the sweet thing was merely trying to protect my blueberries from the raiding birds.  (Not the snake's true intention but it sounds nicer than "the snake was trying to eat a bird".)  Son found me talking to the snake and probably assumed that my oldness had finally caught up with me as he could only see I was conversing with a shrub.  Once he came to check on the sanity of his old mom, he, too, was elated to find the snake.  We had just talked about not finding any as of late.

  Rat snakes will eat most anything they can catch which makes them great to have around the place.  They literally keep the place "pest-free".  That being said, it is easy to see why they are always welcome around here and the paraphrased adage somewhat holds true.  A rat snake in the bush is always good even though two in hand would not be bad, either!

Jays vs Hawks

   The (Critter) Neighborhood Watch Clan has been on high alert for the past several weeks.  A pair of hawks has been lurking in the trees of the yard and have been snatching unsuspecting birds.  Several months ago, the same thing happened and I had to quit feeding the birds in the feeders.  Visiting the feeders made them fat, lazy and easy targets for the hawks.  After a few weeks, the hungry pair moved on and hunted elsewhere.  Not wanting to start the whole rigmarole over again, I took to spreading seeds on one of the flower benches.  That worked exceedingly well until squirrels and raccoons started ripping through the flower gardens in search of errant seeds.  The bench feeding had to stop and ground feeding commenced.

  Now, the hawks have decided that the birds being five feet from the house under the overhang of jasmine vines is an open invitation.   The predators have no problem zipping down from the hickory tree, dodging the roses and fence posts and swerving through the jasmine vines to pick off a dove.  It saddens me to find the piles of feathers left behind after the hawk devours its prey.  The latest find was that of a blue jay.

  But, as I said earlier, the Neighborhood Watch Clan is on high alert (literally high alert.)  It seems as if the blue jays have appointed themselves as guards over the other birds that come to eat.  There is a tall oak tree that has a few dead limbs at the very top (thanks to Hurricane Zeta).  Each morning at sunrise for the past two weeks, a blue jay can be found perched there.  That jay sits there calmly watching and waiting.  If the hawks make an appearance, the jay starts to yell.  Soon jays fly in from all over the place to join in the cacophony of warnings.  Then, thrashers, cardinals, blackbirds, mockingbirds and even the tiny wrens start with the harassment of the hawks.  Usually, the hawks give way to the other birds and they fly to the back of the Bayou.  The Critter Neighborhood Watch Clan rules!  While most folks seek out squirrel proof feeders, I am pondering a hawk proof area.  Not sure how that is going to work but it is necessary.