An AMAZING eating feat!! Couldn't believe my eyes!!!!

Alright, once everyone here gets to know me a little better, they will learn that I love to share stories about snakes!!!! :D :D :D

This is a story of a rat snake taking down a bird that was way too large.

Here is the human story.

My husband went walking with the dog and upon returning to the house, he saw a massive amounts of birds hanging out in one spot. He was wondering why so many birds were in our yard! What could be going on! Then he walked over and found out. A rather small rat snake snag one of their friends, killed it, and was trying to eat it.

Chris comes running inside yelling, "Star, you HAVE to come see this and bring a camera!"

So, now I know I MUST see this and grabbed the camera. I came outside. We tried to move the birds away as they were trying to avenge their fallen loved one.

I seriously thought this snake was going to die eating this bird. It was day light out when this started, not dusk either. By time he/she finished, we had to have a flashlight to find him because it was pitch dark. It took this snake HOURS to eat. I seriously thought he was going to kill himself with this prey size.

It took forever!

Here is the Rat Snake story :O

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...02009/rat1.jpg

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...02009/rat2.jpg

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...02009/rat3.jpg

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...02009/rat4.jpg

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...02009/rat5.jpg

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...02009/rat6.jpg

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...02009/rat7.jpg


Still amazed at how small the bump is in the snake. You would think it would be much larger.


http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...02009/rat9.jpg


The snake didn't even seem to care that I was taking pictures, fleeing birds away from him, using flashlights, and everything. I was actually worried about this snake! I rarely see snakes in the wild and to find one in your own yard eating like this was just plain amazing and lucky!

Star

Awesome story. :) I'm a big fan of rat snakes. Definitely lucky for that to be in your yard, good thing it wasn't in somebody else's that would have killed him, especially with as long as it took. My neighbor told me last night about her co-worker chopping up a Garter snake in their yard. Just for being a snake, of course.

Talk about your eyes being bigger than your stomach!

That is a mighty impressive job by that snake!

It's one of the reasons we love snakes so much! They never cease to amaze us! What a blessing to see something like that in your own yard! Thanks for sharing it with us!!

Amazing....thanks for sharing.

What a hog. Thanks for sharing.

Wow, that's incredible!! Go little ratsnake go!

Aww, too cute! Birds are all feathers, but that one seemed chunky!

Well he should be full for at least a day or so :) What wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing.

That'll last him a while.

That's awesome story and this pictures shoube published in some herp book !!!:gj::gj::gj:

Very cool story and pics, thanks for sharing.

I love sharing!! :D :D :D

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Originally Posted by RyanT

Awesome story. :) I'm a big fan of rat snakes. Definitely lucky for that to be in your yard, good thing it wasn't in somebody else's that would have killed him, especially with as long as it took. My neighbor told me last night about her co-worker chopping up a Garter snake in their yard. Just for being a snake, of course.

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Well, here in NC. It would have been a death sentence for this rat snake if he was in someone else's yard. Not only that, he would have been labelled as a Cottonmouth because every snake that is dark in NC is a Cottonmouth. (Sick and tired of hearing this)

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Originally Posted by SilverDemon

Talk about your eyes being bigger than your stomach!

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Yes, very! The snake took HOURS to get this down. It was ridiculous. I didn't think I was going to find him in the dark. I was checking on him about every 20-30 minutes and trying to take a picture each time to show the progression.

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Originally Posted by tcutting

That is a mighty impressive job by that snake!

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I would have to agree with you fully here. :D :D :D

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Originally Posted by thewesterngate

Aww, too cute! Birds are all feathers, but that one seemed chunky!

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Yes, birds are all feathers but that rat snake wasn't very big. It just looked amazing that he was able to eat it though.

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Originally Posted by akaangela

Well he should be full for at least a day or so :) What wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing.

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Yeah, I am sure he was in hiding for probably the rest of the month or the rest of the summer on that feeding. He hit the jackpot...lol

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Originally Posted by Aes_Sidhe

That's awesome story and this pictures shoube published in some herp book !!!:gj::gj::gj:

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Thanks Aes!!!

Star

That is incredible! No matter how many times I feed my snakes I'm always amazed at how much smaller the meal looks after they've swallowed it. :P

That is very cool ! Thanks for sharing these pics !

That is just too awesome!!

Just came across this while trying to calm my fears of possibly giving to a large a prey to Igbo. This pretty much did it. Really great photos.

Best story of the day.

And that's a capitol period by the way.

That is incredible. Thank you so much for sharing! I agree, this should be published in a herp book.