the "trick" that really wasn't

Yesterday I was doing some yard clean-up and thought I saw a "fake" snake lying in my front yard.  I figured one of the neighborhood kids threw it over on Halloween night.  Imagine my surprise when I stooped down to pick it up and realized it was not fake at all but rather a very real (and very dead) garter snake!

If any of my neighbors saw me at that moment, they must have chuckled because I'm sure I jumped pretty high upwards and backwards!

After I recovered from the surprise of it all, I felt bad that he wasn't alive anymore.  Although snakes startle me, I really don't mind having them in the garden because they are so beneficial.  The only exception would be a rattle snake ~ I would NOT want to see one of those!  This guy looked like he had been eating pretty well ~ probably lots of grasshoppers that were so plentiful this year?  I estimated he was about two foot long which my yardstick confirmed (and then some):

I'm not sure what took him out ~ it looked like he had a vise around his neck:

He's compost now ~ I buried him in my garden bed ~ but I hope to not make anymore surprise discoveries like him for a while!

Comments

[AngryRedhead]

Maybe he got into a fight with another snake?

[Ulla]

What a lovely blog of yours...
Have a nice weekend...
ullabella

[Sweetbay]

I wonder what happened to him... Black snakes sometimes curl up in the walls and corners of our hay shelter. They look fake but they're not!

[Helen]

The snake is beautifule but I'm really glad we dont have many here in the UK as I really really dont like snakes - I find them quite creepy!

[Joy]

Kathleen that must have been hilarious seeing you jump ! .. hey, i would have too as well as screamed most likely !
I have not seen a snake here as of yet .. but there are some large worms ?? LOL ..
Poor thing .. I wonder what happened to him .. you did the right thing by him though .. he was appreciated by a gardener ?
Joy : )

[Kala]

I love how you got the yardstick out and measured him!

[Pam/Digging]

I saw a snake remarkably like that one in my garden too the other day, sunning itself on a gravel path. I did a double-take, thinking I was seeing something else, a branch on the ground maybe, before my brain processed that it was a snake. Like you, I thought it was pretty cool and crept back to run for my camera. But when I returned it was gone.

[Catherine]

I would've jumped too! We don't see snakes around here now, although I grew up just blocks from where I live now and we always found snakes when I was a kid. I remember my sister and I would catch them to see them up close.

[Racquel]

Ooh yuck! I would of freaked even if it was already dead.