[tn-bird] bluebird/snake article
- From: jreese5@xxxxxxx
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 10:08:03 -0600
Anna, I would like to know more about better predator guards as well. I=
am
enclosing a column I wrote about snake guards last year, and would
appreciate anyone's comment on a better way to protect nest boxes. It w=
ould
be a good time to do another article on this subject.
Bluebirds and Snakes and Nightgowns, oh no!
Just barely awake one spring morning, I was running water to make coffe=
e
and gazing out the kitchen window. My eyes went to the bluebird house w=
here
I would usually see the parents coming and going feeding their babies. =
This
morning, though, there was something just inside the opening of the hou=
se.
It stayed there, and I squinted sleepily, trying to make it out. Finall=
y, I
took a kitchen stool, and still in my nightgown, traipsed barefooted
through the grass out to the nestbox, accompanied by my large troop of
canine friends. I wiggled the stool around in the dirt to find a level
spot, climbed up on the swaying stool, and put my eye right up to the h=
ole.
Just on the other side of the hole, looking right back at me, was a sna=
ke.
Now, I am a friend of snakes, intellectually, but sometimes, my emotion=
al
reaction to being surprised by one is simply primal panic.
I went over like a shot. Flat on my back in the grass, I was helpless u=
nder
the onslaught of solicitous dogs, pinned to the ground by their many fe=
et
on my nightgown. By rolling and crawling, I finally managed to reach my=
feet before being licked to death. I woke the man who was then my husba=
nd,
shouting instructions and handed him a little pistol we kept loaded wit=
h
ratshot. "Never," he told me later, "wake me up screaming like a banshe=
e,
and hand me a loaded gun! My first inclination was to use it on you jus=
t to
stop your gosh-awful racket."
I feel badly now about killing the snake, which after all, was just doi=
ng
what snakes naturally do, but I did have some small hope that the fresh=
ly
swallowed babies might still be alive. We slit open the snake and pulle=
d
them out, but they were dead. The parents were on the wire above us,
twittering anxiously, and I was trying to decide if we should let them
examine the dead babies, when it began to rain. We abandoned the tragic=
scene and went back to the house. I kept watch out the window, and saw =
an
odd performance by a mockingbird. It flew to the wire above the snake a=
nd
looked at it for a time, tilting its head this way and that. Finally, i=
t
landed on the ground near the snake and gave it a peck or two. Concludi=
ng
that the snake was "truly and sincerely" dead, it began what I could on=
ly
call a victory dance. Hopping up and down on the snake's body, waving i=
ts
wings, the mockingbird seemed to give the lifeless reptile a sort of fi=
nal
thrashing.
This all was very interesting, but still, I would have preferred that t=
he
babies had made it to adulthood, and I had to admit that it was my faul=
t
for not providing the proper snakeguards for the nestbox. Now I had a d=
ead
snake, and bluebird babies on my conscience...
Snakes can be deterred by affixing something to the pole that prevents =
them
from climbing. Just a slick pole isn't enough, since many snakes can wr=
ap
around, and pushing against their own body, make it up the pole. Someti=
mes
greasing the pole is recommended, but if you let the grease get dirty o=
r
dried out, the snake can climb through it. Instead, an attachment to th=
e
pole, jutting out at least two feet, obstructs a snake from reaching th=
e
nest. I have used aluminum flashing, made into a cone shape, wide end d=
own,
causing the snake to get sort of "trapped" underneath as it tries to cl=
imb
the pole. However, picture a large flat piece of wood, either circular =
or
square, with a pole stuck through it. Most snakes won't be able to rear=
themselves back from the pole to get over this obstacle without falling=
.
Also, be sure there are no overhanging limbs that allow snakes to drop =
in
from above.
A simpler method said to be effective is to tape a big swaddling skirt =
of
thick, landscape grade black plastic around the pole, leaving it loose
around the bottom. Supposedly, the snake can't find a grip on the outsi=
de
of the flexible, bulky "skirt", and if it tries to go underneath, it ge=
ts
trapped under the plastic. This will be ugly, but certainly a less ugly=
scene than dissected snakes and dead bird babies in the rain.
Carol Reese
Ornamental Horticulture Specialist -Western District
University of Tennessee Extension Service
605 Airways Blvd.
Jackson TN 38301
901 425 4721 email jcreese@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx=
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