My first visitor was around 10am today. I was in the process of putting tags on seed pods when I noticed something between the pots moving. Yeap, it was a snake. A baby Garter, appx 24" long and about as big as a pencil, black with 2 yellow stripes down it's back. I don't think the little one even saw me. I told him it was ok to stay and grow in my garden. The only thing he needs to do is catch as many voles as possible when he gets big enough to eat one.
Then about 1pm, I was in another area of the garden, again putting on more tags(I had a long lunch break today) when I went to step around an old tiller covered up with a big tub, I caught a movement. This time it was not a baby but a big, really big for a blue racer. He was around 5 foot long and about the size of 1" pipe at his biggest side. Blue Racers are good snakes, but they will bite. I've been bitten twice by one and it may have been this very one. So, I told him to go on his way because he was between me and the pots I needed to get to to put the labels on. He promptly looked up at me and took off. They can move fast, really fast and I did not try to stop him!! The last time I handled a Racer, last year, I took one out of a tree that was up next to the house. The tree had a pot hanging on a low limb and a Wren had built her nest in the pot. The snake was climbing the tree to get to the nest. I could see the pot and the snake out of my living room window, so I interfered with his climb for supper and he didn't like it one bit. I got a good hold on him but he managed to get his head out too far, and I got bit. They have teeth like a catfish and they didn't feel good burried into my hand. Of course, he didn't just bite, he held on and I couldn't hold him and pry his mouth off my hand, so I had to get my daughter to come out and get him unhooked from my hand. Now, imagine me standing there holding the snake about 6" from his head and his mouth clamped onto my other hand. My daughter(30) is telling me in no uncertain terms that she WAS NOT GOING TO TOUCH THAT SNAKE!!!!! I gave her my gloves(naturally I didn't have them on) and told her to grab the snake behind his head. After several false starts and much encouragement from me, she finally got a death grip on the poor snake, who still had my hand in his mouth. I was able to take my other hand and pry his mouth off my hand(my daughter is all this time, squealing like a little girl pig for me to hurry up so she could drop the snake. NOPE, you can't drop him, that's why I caught him in the first place, he has to go to the woods. So, again, I this time, got a really good hold on him and let my dear squealing daughter turn him loose. I then took him out to the woods, away from the bird nest. I'm quite sure he probably beat me back to the house, but he didn't bother the birds again.
Last year, I only saw one snake all year. This year, I've seen 5. In the 19 years that we've lived here, we've only had one bad snake on our 3 acre lot(that we know of). It was a huge, reallly reallly huge, copperhead laying in our driveway. He was about 50' from our front door. He would not leave, period. He was sunning on the concrete and had no intention of leaving. So, my DH helped him on to that great big garden in the sky with his shotgun!! The dogs were having fits, the same dogs that never even see the good snakes, so we atleast know that they didn't like bad snakes. Since we have 2 acres in uncleared woods as part of out property, we have been really lucky not to see anymore bad ones.
Oh me, I gotta go move a water hose. Hope ya'll talk about your visitors, too. I didn't get to take any pictures, sorry.
