The hummingbird was already dead when I saw that, something dangling from the branch caught my eye...the little hummer I named Sweetie, BTW. Sweetie was limp and dangling from the mantis' front legs (?) or whatever while it ate on her. The anger I felt then...well, I'm not naturally a person to get mad much, but that...that was a monstrous deed! I knew then the culprit's fate was sealed. But first...a pic to remind me in the future that the mantises must always be dealt with. Sorry for the grisly pic
Oh, and DH thinks that snake was a 5-footer, but hopefully he was over-estimating. I've never seen a 5-foot snake in this area. A little snake trivia...I read somewhere that you can be fairly sure there's no predatory size snakes around if your yard has lots of frogs and lizards. Well, we don't usually have frogs. The toads were around this year...not a whole lot, however. But come to think of it, I can't remember seeing any lately. I've see a few lizards lately, including this one that someone suggested is a Texas Alligator Lizard...it was trying to get away from me when I was trying to take this, so its head is hidden. If it is, that's supposed to be the largest lizard in Texas...obviously, this would have been a juvenile one.
