snakes on everything

I’m borrowing this title from Little Feat, the legendary swamp rock band. It is the first cut from their first album, written and sung by keyboardist Bill Payne. Regrettably, it falls into the massive Lookin’-for-Love domain without a single herpetological reference.

But, boy, do we have a bumper crop of garter snakes on this farm this summer, the most by far in our 20 years here. I am familiar with them from my childhood in Missouri. A good sized one is a metre (@ yard) long. They produce a mild neurotoxin but have no fangs to effectively deliver it. Of all the garters I’ve handled, none of them tried to bite. They would much prefer to slither away rapidly.

On an average summer here, we would have a dozen sightings of garters while we were walking the dogs or doing yardwork. Already this year, we’ve had two dozen sightings. Almost all of them successfully dodged us or the dogs, but, alas, two of them did U-turns right into the riding mower.

Speaking of lookin’-for-love, garters will travel long distances to brumate (similar to hibernate) with scads of their peers. As winter fades, the garters form a mating ball to increase the heat, but the males can sometimes outnumber the females 100 to one.

And, speaking of Little Feat, check out their incomparable double live album Waiting for Columbus. I dare you to listen to “Dixie Chicken” without singing along.