Mortal Combat

I was unloading Costco (I love Costco!!) items from my truck when I heard something thrashing around in the trees in our backyard. I turned around and saw what I thought was a squirrel falling from a tree. I looked closer and realized it was one of our pileated woodpeckers, she looked to have fallen and was hoping around drunken on a branch.

I then realized there was a large black snake in the tree not 5 feet from her. OMG, right?!

 

I was having a terrible time getting a decent photo because of the angle of the setting sun. Poo. Although, these shots are better than they looked on my teeny screen on the camera. You can actually see the yucky, slithery grodieness that is the snake. Blech. I didn't even realize, until Mr. came home (after dark, of course, and too late to do anything about it) and told me he was probably after her eggs.  So sad. He told me I should have gotten the pistol and "scared it off". I am not certain I could have actually shot at a living creature, no matter how devilish and carnivorous, even had I known this. 

What about you? Had you known the snake was after her babies, would you have thought to retrieve a gun to shoot at a living being? Food for thought (for me at least, most of you don't live among the wild, I am sure). 

Ew. Speaking of "wild", I let the dogs out the other night to potty and saw (not until I had stood there for about five minutes) a wolf spider the size of my palm hanging out in the doorway, about 18 inches from my hip. Icky, icky, icky. Lucky for you all, I was too busy shrieking like a girl and freaking out my Mr. and the dogs to take a picture.