This morning I was sitting on the steps of the front door eating my breakfast. I didn’t want to cook, instead, I was having chicken salad on crackers with a cup of tea.
I was sitting there watching the trees and nature and listen to the birds. To my left I heard leaves rustling. It’s amazing how sensitive your ears get when you’re out in nature and there are no other loud sounds. The slightest crumple of a leaf will get your attention. I heard rustling leaves, a pause, then more. It stops, starts again, then stops. It starts again a few seconds later and I look to my left. I saw something actually move. I thought it was something blowing in the wind but I looked a little bit closer, and it actually moved. It was a little black snake. Of course, my first thought was to get the shotgun and take it out as I normally would, but I thought I would actually do a little research on snakes. Since I haven’t been here for a while and I don’t know a lot about the snakes in the area I thought I would look and see what was being said about black snakes.
Black snakes are supposed to be a sign of good omens. They actually hunt rats, mice and other such things. The things that I don’t want coming into my house.
As I went in the house to get the gun because, at first I was gonna take it out. I came back and it was gone, I figured it had went back underneath the tin, where it was, or rather where I thought it came from. I waited a while, then I heard rustling once again, I walked over and I saw it, peaking its head out from underneath a piece of tin. I moved the tin there and It was, a small black snake.
Although I had the gun in my hand I decided to let it live. In the meantime, it had moved rather quickly to the other side of the tin under a pile of leaves. I didn’t chase it and I didn’t kill it. I’m sure it’s still there somewhere. This is one I let get away, and hopefully in the future, if I can distinguish whether they are venomous are non venomous, I will let them live if they’re not venomous.
As I sit here writing this I can still hear rustling leaves in the area I saw this Alabama black snake.
Photo Credit: Scott Gravette from Outdoor Alabama
https://www.outdooralabama.com/non-venomous-snakes/black-racer
