Friday, May 4, 2012

dead birds and hungry snakes

tonight, we were visiting my parents. we were having a good time, about to serve dinner, when my dad noticed a dead bird on the ground below the big window out back.

knowing my child like i do, i immediately called brooke to come outside and check the bird out. she ran out, checked for blood or goo and then picked it up and thoroughly investigated it. she spread out the wings, opened and closed the beak, rubbed its belly.





then she headed further out into the yard to find a place to set it. a place where it wouldn't get stepped on or picked up by the dog. we were heading for a hole where a stump was ripped out recently when i spotted a snake on the edge of the hole.  brooke climbed a tree with branches overlooking the snake so she could get a good look. i ran in for the rest of the family so they could enjoy our slithering discovery.


turns out, it was a copperhead, so it had to be.... um... separated from its head. with a shovel.

when i asked brooke later where she'd decided to leave her dead bird, she told me that when she climbed the tree, she took the bird carcass up with her. she inspected the snake and determined that there were no obvious lumps, so it probably hadn't eaten recently. she then threw the bird at the snake in hopes that she'd get to watch it swallow it whole. too bad snakey lost his head before he got his easy meal.

20 comments:

  1. Apparently, the bird was a victim of fowl play.
    Glad there are no copperheads where I live. The Jersey Shore is near by.
    That's good enough for me.

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    1. we've got all kinds of nice, poisonous wildlife here. at our last house, we had to knock the black widow spiders out of the outside toys before brooke could play with them.

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  2. Um. No. When I first started this, I thought your little one was going to try to bring it back to life. Then I just admired her curiousity. Then.....snake snack? Yuk!

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    1. nah, she likes checking out dead things. and she's nothing if not pragmatic when it comes to animals.

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  3. YIKES a copperhead.
    The look on Brookes face in the first photo is hysterical. She is all eyes.

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    1. lol! you can see how excited she was to have a bird to hold.

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  4. i detest snakes with a passion. they creep me out. and so do dead birds. so this post was not very good for me :s

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    1. sorry. real life has lot of stuff i don't like too.

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  5. Not a pleasant post for animals, but I liked the delicate way you decapitated the snake.

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    1. i was trying to be gentle. the shovel was less gentle. i'm glad my dad was there to take care of it. and did you know that snake heads stay alive and will still bite you long after they're detached?

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  6. I found it great how considerate Brooke was over the dead bird until she decided she wanted to feed it to a snake haha, this is a seriously hilarious story Sherry. I'm so glad Saint Patrick drove all of the snakes away from Ireland, I don't think I could deal with bad boys like that snake.

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    1. you don't have snakes there? they're good because they eat rodents, but i don't want to see the dangerous ones in the place where my kid runs around bare-footed. he was only about 2 feet long. not that impressive.

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  7. Talk about a surprise ending! I thought she was trying to revive the bird, not preparing chow for the copperhead.

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    1. she definitely wasn't trying to revive it. she likes dead things because she can handle them and check them out. she never gets to hold live birds. and she's a realist. she knows snakes need to eat.

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  8. Eek, snake! See, my Mom would have picked it up and brought it to safety. She's all about saving living creatures. I am not.

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  9. COOL pictures! You know...kids like your daughter...who are curious and fascinated by the natural world...they're the ones who are going to save us someday. Bravo to you for encouraging your girl to explore!

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  10. I 100% approve of this post. ...particularly the part where the snake loses his head. :)

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  11. this story, Sherilin, was filled with many fascinating tidbits, and many horrifying ones too, as is your thang. What if Brooke became a vet one day!?! That would be so cool.

    Horrified by the snake.

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  12. Eeeeewwwww, I hate snakes!!! How funny that she wanted to feed the dead bird to the snake!!

    Such a brave girl to pick up a dead bird with her bare hands. I could see my boys doing that but Bella...she'd ruin her manicure.

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  13. I hate slithery things so much even the word gives me nightmares. Wish I hadn't been catching up w. LMAO last night before bed. I only scrolled by this one when I saw the title but I saw the picture. Had nightmares all night. Ick. And my loathing of them is totally Biblical so I see no need to change it. haha ;) Course living in NC it does sometimes prevent me from going outside my house in the summer. . . #paralyzingfear Is it weird that I am so afraid of them but am okay with ANYTHING else ie. bugs, spiders, lizards?

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don't let me be the only one doing the talking around here. spill your guts!