Good Karma Returns Annually

Since 2009, we've annually found a snakeskin shed draped over the power meter as shown here.  I know the species, and while snakes do creep some people out, this is a nonvenomous black rat snake - so it really isn't anything to be afraid of at all.

What I did notice about this year's skin is that it is larger than it was last year...and now that I think of it, the snake that owned this skin has grown every year.  I looked through my past posts, and found this one that includes a photo of the first time we saw a skin here:

http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2009/06/good-karma-bad-karma.html

That old post had an unfortunate title.  Even though it's inevitable that we are going to be surprised by this critter someday, I know that between it and the barn cats we've been rodent free for the last few years.

We've encountered snakes periodically over the seven years that we have been coming here.  A key word search reveals more than 20 posts on the topic since I started this blog.  Signifying my evolving perspective on these guys, there was this post, which I'll close with, from 2012:  http://hawksbillcabin.blogspot.com/2012/08/herpetology-and-healthy-ecosystem.html