Snake as tall as a Mom.

Last week Jamie and Henry had a very fun and snakey week at reptile camp at the Cincinnati Nature Center.
http://www.cincynature.org/
They both had a wonderful week learning all about reptiles in their natural habitat, and happily traipsed about the woods and fields looking for snakes.

Jamie and a buddy showing me how tall their snake was compared to this birdbox.

This kind of search terrifies me and I am very happy that this is an element of parenting that can be contracted out... the great 8 hour snake hunts. 

The highlight of Jamie's small group happened when they came across a thieving, greater than 5 foot black rat snake.
The boys excitedly pointed out that their snake was "taller than a mom," if it was stretched out which is absolutely correct and easily measured by the over five foot tall bird box that it was visiting.
 Mrs. Snake was sneaking into the birdbox  to steal the eggs while the mama and papa bird flew around and screaming and cursing him.

I am telling myself that there were eggs and not baby birds in the nest only because eggs are not as cute as baby birds, and so less troubling for me to think of their sad departure via snake tummy. 

photo courtesy of Green Acres foundation...  http://www.green-acres.org/

This is a photo of another very tall black rat snake from a nearby camp.... as you can see she is indeed as tall as a mom but a much better tree climber than most moms I know.