Me: Oh, nothing much. We went up to my parents for swimming, grilling and an ecology lesson
You: An ecology lesson? What on earth do you mean?
Me: Well let me tell you a little story....
So for the second year in a row, my parents have ducks in their pool. They have already had a brood hatch and fly away, and today we were looking out the living room window, and we could see a duck on the edge of the pool peering into the bushes where the old nest was, and not moving. So Dad & Jamie went out to see if there were more eggs in the nest. My dad walks around the back edge of the pool, the duck flies away, and Dad pulls up the bushes around the nest. Well, there are in deed more eggs in the nest, however there was also a large snake eating the eggs!!! EEEEKKK! Right? Well, Jamie goes & gets 2 shovels; one to hold the bushes back with and the other to kill the snake with. So, with the precision and exuberance of 2 former boy scouts they hack off its head. And when my dad finally pulls the still wriggling snake out of the bushes, this is what he finds...
Yes, my friends, that is a flippin' huge snake. My dad is 6 feet tall by the way, which means that snake is at least 5 feet long. And our home autopsy revealed that it is most likely a cottonmouth, which is a poisonous water snake. I don't think you can really see in the picture, but there are still two big lumps in it from the duck eggs he had already swallowed.So there you have it, the Memorial day lesson in ecology...although even that wasn't enough to keep us out of the pool.
7 comments:
That is horrifying! That poor mama duck! Has she returned since witnessing that nasty snake murder her babies? I love ducks - seeing the eggs in the snake made me sad (and feel a little gross)!
By the way - I love your dad's hair in that picture! Either it was super windy or that snake must have really scared him!
We actually helped our kids hatch some duck eggs they found years ago. It was so fun! Are there still some eggs left that the snake didn't get? The first thing I noticed in the photo wasn't the snake but the new "do" your dad was sporting! ;-) Love the family photo in the pool!!
Duckling Update: The 7 remaining eggs are fine. Both Mama & Daddy duck returned as soon as we all vacated the pool area, and Mama remained on the nest the whole time we were playing in the pool.
As for my dad's new Einstein-esqe hair-do, that was a combination of wind and having to practically climb in the bushes to wrangle the snake.
ohh snakes !! that's SCARY !!!! did you guys kill the snake.. i can see the two eggs.. poor ducks !!
uh, I think I just peed my pants.
Man, how is that for a little Memorial day adventure... not need for the new Indiana Jones movie for your family... you had your own high action!
I am so glad to hear that they ducks came back, they can be so finicky!
Chris
Swim day tomorrow (weds) at Hallie's house at one o'clock!
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