While preparing to stage some of the shots for this past Tip Jar, I was rearranging things in Deep 13 and needed to prop something up for a few minutes, so I went out into the yard to get a brick. I’m smart enough (and have past experiences that remind me) to check such things first before bringing them indoors, and so turned it over to ensure there were no spiders or fun things clinging to it. That revealed this:
That hole in the brick would be a tight fit for my thumb, so we’re not talking large here, but what we’re looking at are the coils (and the tip of the nose, at right) of a ring-necked snake (Diadophis punctatus,) and not a young one, either – this is adult size. This one was quite pleased with its lair and thus reluctant to abandon it, though the snake did squirm around a little, mostly I think to keep an eye on what was happening outside. There’s a small blob of cement blocking the other side, so this was the only exit.
It’s funny – I’ve seen three or four of the species here since moving to the new Walkabout Estates, but haven’t actually featured one for four years, well before the move – I guess I was always busy with something else and didn’t bother with photos.
I thought, Hey, this is handy – I can use this guy as a demo for the dish macro setting, and so, kept it in a small container for a few minutes until I was ready to stage the shots. The snake, however, showed me the flaw in this idea, since after being coaxed out of its lovely brick and held in a plastic storage container for about 20 minutes, it wasn’t inclined to just sit around and look pretty, and shot over the sides of the ‘soil and leaf’ setting in milliseconds. Remember what I said about being ready to recapture subjects? I was, so it didn’t get far, but that meant my choice for photos was in some form of restraint, like this. It also meant that my hands bore the unmistakable scent of snake shit, since that’s their primary defense – yes, I’d washed them afterwards, but if you have any experience with this (of course you do,) you know that the smell isn’t easily eradicated, so it was a mix of pungent musk and, I don’t know, whatever scented soap The Girlfriend purchases, vanilla I think. They don’t go together, is what I’m saying. Now, maybe sandalwood…
Right after these pics, the snake and the brick were returned to where I’d found them, though I made no attempt to reinsert my model back into its hidey-hole (neighbor.) It could figure it out on its own.