Friday, July 11, 2008

Exciting Sighting

Well we got in our DQ Blizzards this evening after all :)

Since we were already in the vicinity of a large local park, I asked dh if he wanted to stop and we'd walk around the lake.

The weather was hot and sunny but we planned on taking the route not actually by the lake but a path deeper into the woods where it was nice and shady.

After walking for about 10 minutes we ended up near the water and took a step down onto a rocky area next to the shore. One of the kids spotted a snake! And not only one snake but three snakes.

Now getting a close up of three snakes in "the wild" is pretty exciting as it is for the kids (OK and for the mom) but the most exciting part was seeing what one of the snakes had in its mouth...a small sun perch(?) fish!

The snake had the fish by the tail fin and while the fish was on the rocks you could still see it breathing. Pretty soon the snake had dragged the fish back into the water (which would have seemed the wrong thing to do) where we watched them battle for a couple of minutes. It seemed like the snake definitely was winning. I kept wishing that I had brought my camera.

Now do snakes eat fish?? Being that I'm not a herpetologist I don't have a clue as to what type of snake it was. Dh didn't think it was a cotton mouth...

2 comments:

Heather said...

Wow, that is awesome!

CanadianGrandma said...

Most water snakes in Missouri are harmless except for the moccasin snake. Yes, they do eat fish,frogs,insects,etc.It could have been a Nerodia snake.What colour was it and how long?