I never like snakes even though I have never been bitten by one. An unexpected sight of a snake would easily startle me.
The first time I saw this water snake as shown below, it was still a baby. It seemed to be at ease with me and even posed for me to take a close-by picture.
Afterward, many times when I was working in my garden and running across it unexpectedly, even mere a few inches away, it didn't try to bite me or move at all. Over last few months, it has grown larger and seemed to have kept wild rabbits away from my vegetables. For this reason, it is my garden friend.
Yesterday I saw a hawk paying close attention to the ground and didn't realize it was the snake who got the attention. A few minutes later when I returned, I saw the hawk hastily flying away from the ground and found the snake dead with its head gone.
I buried the remain next to a tree.
Poor friendly snake.
I can't say I'm a fan of snakes, most here in Australia can be deadly. I tend to leave them to themselves though, rather than kill them just for being a snake. At least yours kept you company for a while. Nature can be harsh I suppose, but the circle has to keep going around right?
Absolutely, I agree. It is an ecosystem. That hawk didn’t kill the snake just for fun, but for food.
I've seen a lot of snakes up close, deadly ones like the Eastern Brown snake here in Australia and generally they are happy to go their own way given enough space to do so. Your friend served his/her purpose by keeping you company and then providing a meal for the hawk, who in turn may have hawklings to look after. Is hawklings a word? It is now!
Unless it is a python and a human child, we are simply too big to be their food. Most of the time, we are bitten because of their self defense.
No wonder there are more than one million English words and counting every single new day :-)
I try and make up a new one every day. It's called:
Newwordling.
...And there's another!
Lol.
That's sad. Thank you for sharing 🙏
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You are welcome. Thank you for reading and commenting!
Spiders and snakes are creatures I do not warm to. But, I do realize they do more good than harm. I keep my distance as long as they keep theirs. Ultimately, they stay out of my house and I don't bother them. They come into my house and the hawk would be a merciful end compared to my stomping, flip-flop swatting and steak fork jousting rage.
@galenkp is correct, nature can be cruel, but it is more love than cruel.
Steak fork? I heard they are delicious but never dare to try. ;-)
Very true! There is more love than cruel in nature.
Yeah, steak fork is all I could come up with at the time. Was trying to think of the name of the meat fork, but didn't come to me at the time.
