You’ve heard this before…I’m not much on snakes but this scene fascinated me with the combo of the snake flicking his tongue, shadows and reflections, and the tent caterpillar over the snake’s eye.
I was safely on a boardwalk above the water that I was sharing with about a million tent caterpillars.
These caterpillars are having a very successful year in SC. This one didn’t know it, but he was about to go for a ride.
Francis Beidler Forest, Harleyville, SC
March 31, 2023
Cool pics. I like snakes. I do NOT like tent caterpillars. Sorry to hear you’re area is being carpeted with them.
Thanks, glad that you liked the snake pics. We’ve had a change in weather, back down into the 50s overnight for awhile and I’ve read that might bring an end to the caterpillars. That said, my patio had quite a collection crawling on it this morning — yuck. None of the birds like them either. I saw a Prothonotary Warbler spit one out!
They’ve been doing their best to kill a few of my trees the past couple of years, and they succeeded with the birch. In my research to eradicate them I learned that they have a barb on their bodies that mess with any critter that tries to eat them. I ended up picking them off the trees with a “grabber” and dropping them in a 5-gal pail of water with dish soap.
you’re = your
😃
Thrilling position, can’t wait.
Very nice! (For a reptile lover, that is)
Thanks, William.
We are festooned with the darned tent caterpillars here on the upper Texas gulf coast, as well. I’m always happy when they vanish… and I wonder that I don’t see birds in a feeding frenzy going after them. Too cool to get one hitchhiking on the snake, great photo!
Ugg, sorry you are having them, too. We’re into a cooler spell, down into the 50s for a few nights that supposedly will end their rampage. We’ll see if that pans out!
I saw a Prothonotary Warbler spit one out, not tasty I’m thinking. One of the naturalists at Beidler told me that Yellow-billed Cuckoos are one of the few birds that like them and it is early for them here.
Thanks, glad that you liked the image with the hitchhiker. I wondered if the snake would try to rinse it off, especially when it went over his eye, but the snake seemed oblivious to it.