From south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Sun Apr 11 18:48:30 2004 Received: from www.plaidworks.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i3C1ks0V017132 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 11 Apr 2004 18:46:54 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mtiwmhc13.worldnet.att.net (mtiwmhc13.worldnet.att.net [204.127.131.117]) by plaidworks.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i3C1jG2D017065 for <[[email protected]]>; Sun, 11 Apr 2004 18:45:16 -0700 (PDT) Received: from 588181826worldnet (101.san-francisco-17rh15-16rt.ca.dial-access.att.net[12.72.154.101]) by worldnet.att.net (mtiwmhc13) with SMTP id <2004041201451411300db7d0e>; Mon, 12 Apr 2004 01:45:14 +0000 Message-ID: <002501c42030$580729c0$[[email protected]]> From: "Jan Hintermeister" <[[email protected]]> To: "south-bay-birds" <[[email protected]]> Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2004 18:49:06 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Subject: [SBB] Grant Ranch snipe and a snake story - yikes!! X-BeenThere: [[email protected]] X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5b1 Precedence: list List-Id: South Bay Birding List-Unsubscribe: , List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Sender: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] Errors-To: south-bay-birds-bounces+south-bay-birds-archive=[[email protected]] This morning I visited Grant Ranch to monitor its GREAT BLUE HERON colony - three active ones, one with three very small chicks, and the other two nests incubating. A single WILSON'S SNIPE was a new bird for me at Grant Ranch. BULLOCK'S ORIOLES, HOUSE WRENS and WESTERN BLUEBIRDS were common. There were several WESTERN KINGBIRDS. Two FORSTER'S TERNS were on the lake with an assortment of ducks including MALLARDS, GADWALL, RUDDY DUCKS, three AMERICAN WIGEON, a pair of BUFFLEHEAD, and a pair of LESSER SCAUP. But the most captivating sighting was a snake. After checking out the heron colony, I walked along the lakeshore looking for early dragonflies. At one stop, I noticed the water churning a little just a few feet offshore. As I watched, a snake emerged with the body of something grasped tightly in its mouth. The snake was about two feet long and its prey was about four inches long but with a very large head. This snake appeared to be breaking that well-known rule - never try to eat anything larger than your head - but maybe snakes get a free pass on that one. Its jaws had expanded so it encircled the head top to bottom but side-to-side there was still a lot of head sticking out beyond the snake's mouth. The snake started to swim to shore, dragging its prey along with it. It looked a lot like a lifeguard hauling in an exhausted swimmer. After a few minutes the snake was able to tug its lunch onshore through the grasses and continued to work on swallowing its prey. I watched for maybe twenty minutes and although the snake had a long ways to go, when I left I thought it would succeed in swallowing its catch. Checking references later, I think the prey was a BULLFROG tadpole. I did notice a large number of itty-bitty tadpoles swimming about and there were a lot of large frogs hopping into the water as I passed. One BULLFROG stayed offshore and stared back with its big wide frog eyes. I later identified the snake as a CALIFORNIA RED-SIDED GARTER SNAKE. The head was mostly red, a long yellow stripe ran along the top, down the length of its body, and it had red up-and-down stripes the length of its body. Jan Hintermeister Santa Clara, CA _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. south-bay-birds mailing list ([[email protected]]) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://www.plaidworks.com/mailman/options/south-bay-birds/south-bay-birds-archive%40plaidworks.com This email sent to [[email protected]]