Yesterday afternoon, a break in the rain gave me a chance to take a walk.
I love taking walks around the farm...
never knowing exactly what I will see along the way.
Yesterday's walk was no disappointment as it provided me with two mysteries.
Mystery #1...
as I looked up at the cat-head bird house that hangs on the peak of the wood shed,
I noticed something strange coming from the cat's mouth...
I moved in for a closer look.
What the...?
How did a snakeskin end up there?
Obviously there had been a snake inside the birdhouse...
a snake who shed his skin as he crawled up and out of the house.
Why was he in there?
Was he stealing bird eggs?
Did he climb an adjacent tree? Land on the roof? Slither down into the house?
How did he even know to do that?
All of these questions will most likely remain a mystery....
all that's left behind is one obvious clue...
an empty snake skin.
Hmmmmmmmm.
Mystery #2...
There are two chestnut trees that grow in the pig yard.
Every year I find the empty prickly burrs that fall to the ground...
devoid of any chestnuts.
I always assumed that these small seed pods had no seeds.
Then, this year I found a wealth of chestnuts laying outside the fence.
Thinking that I might roast them, I gathered them all up and filled my pockets.
It seemed that this year the tree had grown large enough that the limbs now hang further than the fence. Hence the nuts in the driveway.
Were there any nuts in the pig yard this year?
I searched, but only found empty prickly pods.
No nuts.
And then as I tried to take photos of the pigs, the answer hit me.
the pigs kept following me around very closely and excitedly
(my pockets full of chestnuts.)
Could it be that the pigs smelled the chestnuts? And liked them?
I had to climb the fence to get away from their curious noses.
The only way to know for sure what happened to those chestnuts inside the fence
was this....
Mystery solved!
By the way....Happy October, Friends!
Comments
Yes, snakes and even raccoons or oposssums can climb up and steal eggs, or even worse!
Maggy
blessings
~*~
that snake could not have found a more snuggly warm spot than that bird house and maybe even a snack or two of bird or birds eggs, poor things,,,,
snake skin decorated bird house, lol, very creepy photo, lol, perfect for halloween!!
Cath from Cath@Home
Those lil' piggies like chestnuts, and you didn't even have to roast them! ;0D
I find a rat snake or two in my nest boxes every year. I just put them in a box and relocate them.