Saturday Connie comes into the den to tell me that there is a gray rat snake at one of the hummingbird feeders. She's all worried that he's going to snag one of the hummingbirds that we now have as dependents. So I go on out there, and sure enough, there he sits, looking hopeful that one of the little birds won't notice him hanging down looking like a twig. He didn't move much the whole time I was taking photos of him, probably thinking "Man, GO AWAY! I'm trying to get some lunch here!"
He apparently thought my hand was prey as he tagged me when I reached up to grab him, but as soon as I had him in my hands, he acted like nothing was wrong. He squirmed a little bit but didn't get very excitable about being handled. Didn't even musk me. So I walked him down to a section of our land near some bamboo where there was a pile of bush Connie and I had been clearing, and released him there.
So this morning I'm looking out the side door of the house at the same hummingbird feeder and I noticed what looked like a twig laying on the feeder. At first I thought a storm had just knocked a twig there, and I was thinking it was probably scaring off the hummingbirds thinking it was a snake. Hey, wait a minute! It WAS a snake. He was coiled up in the center depression of the feeder, and as best I can tell, it's the same one I caught and released two days ago.
How in the heck he figured out how to get back to the same exact spot is pretty baffling. It's not like it was a straight path to where I released him, and it's not even close, nor direct line of sight.
Anyway, one of the hummingbirds actually buzzed him, so I'm glad he didn't wind up a meal for the gray rat snake. But I rushed on out there before his luck would change and I'd have Connie screaming bloody murder.
So I grabbed him up again. He didn't even try to bite this time, so I guess he's gotten used to the routine pretty quickly. Took him back and released him but a little further away this time. He seemed to enjoy being carried, so I can see where this is going....
I expect he'll be back. We had another larger one a couple of years ago at one of the other feeders that I had to catch and release 5 or 6 times. I finally had to bag him up and drive him out into the forest to release him so he would stay gone for good.
And then when I was walking from the old reptile building to the house, I spotted ANOTHER gray rat snake laying around a wagon under the carport. This one is different looking, so it's not the pest having made his way back already. He was a little bit larger, too, and a but paler colored. He went and climbed up into another wagon with some of Connie's pineapple plants on it, so I left him be. No sense slicing my arms to ribbons trying to get him out of that stuff. I'm sure he'll turn up somewhere else soon enough.
So apparently we have a few gray rat snakes prowling around here. These two are approximately the same size, so I guess they are probably siblings. Too bad we don't have the mouse colony any longer or I'd toss them a meal for their troubles before sending them on their way.
But I do hope they don't snag one of "our" birds at the feeders. Connie would be REAL upset to find one with a big lump in him sitting in one of the feeders one morning.