snake

While following the bird nest situation on Tuesday, I spotted this snake under the little hemlock tree where the nest is…well, nestled. One of the finch eggs was missing and after seeing the snake I started wondering if maybe the snake ate it.

Of course we had to figure out what kind of snake it was. Maybe I should just start saying “Welcome to the Lost Forest Nature Center.” 🙂

Not a big fan of snakes, I promptly alerted Steve as soon as he got in the door from work to go check it out. He scooped it up with a stick and put it in a bucket. In transit, it was exhibiting some threatening behavior: hissing, flattening it’s head cobra style, and spraying out a milky substance. My job on the other hand: safely search the internet to figure out what this thing is. Turns out to be an Eastern Hognose, which is not harmful to humans, just likes to act tough. It primarily eats toads. It did look like it had something in it’s belly, but it may have just been puffed up which is part of the whole defensive act. So after some observation and relief on our parts (because it looks somewhat similar to the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake, Michigan’s only venomous snake, and at first when it was coiled up we couldn’t see the tail), it was released back out in the woods.