What Is That ?

I was sitting at the kitchen table and wondered what the black thing sticking up out of the ground was. I said to Gary, "Gary what is that"? Gary said, "What"? I said "That black thing by the drain pipe". Gary said, "I don't know". The orange tipped stake marks the outlet for the drain down spot out in the yard so Gary doesn't mow over it. We both tried to figure out what it was.


Then we noticed what we thought was a stick move and realized it was a snake. The snake stayed there surveying the yard for almost half an hour. At one point he was half way out. Apparently black racers hunt by sight and he was surveying the yard in all directions for prey. Gary went outside to get a better photo for me and the snake went backwards into the drain pipe underground. He must have seen Gary come out and was frightened. We both saw him go backwards. It was amazing.


I was thinking this was the same Black Racer I saw in the front yard, but then he came all the way out of the pipe and I saw he was much bigger than the last one. This one is more than 8 feet long. Look at the back half, he is shedding his skin and it's not all the way off.


Later Gary smoothed out the sand near the drain pipe and the next day he noticed the snake has gone back in there again because the sand had a depression where the snake had traveled across the sand into the pipe. I took the snake photos from inside the house through the glass.

I found this amazing video of a snake shedding his skin, you have to watch, the detail is incredible. Up next another trip to the scrap yard with more photos.