Gray rat snake on the prowl
 

Was walking out by the old reptile building and something odd caught my eye by the generator. Well, well. A good sized gray rat snake was crawling out of it, hopefully on patrol for those danged rodents that have been chewing up the wiring in the generator. Still haven't gotten that fixed, btw, as the yellow flies have been pretty fierce and I didn't want the technicians to have to get chewed up rewiring the thing for me. They probably would have charged me double.

By the time I called Connie over to show her the snake, he was all the way out, laying there in front of the generator just watching us, not really acting all that concerned about it. And by the time I went to the house to grab my camera, he decided to go back into the generator to have another look around....

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I gave him a talking to, telling him he was welcome to prowl around looking for rodents, but the bird feeders were strictly off limits. I think he was around 5 ft long, so he could easily snag and eat our cardinals. Not that I think he would purposely ignore me, but I'm going to be keeping an eye around the bird feeders anyway. If I catch him there, he gets to take a ride out to the nearby national forest to live among the other exiles.

That's a nice size generator Rich. LP gas? I've been thinking of getting one. I want to be sure it's big enough to run everything though.

Yeah, runs on propane. 20kw Onan. It's broken now with the wiring in the control box torn up by rodents. This time when they rewire it I'm going to ask them to use color coded wire instead of all white ones so I can fix it myself. Cost me a grand to have it fixed the last time this happened. :ack2:

That's a Ford engine in there, btw.

Handsome looking reptile. I see red Rat snakes on the cycling trail I ride on near the house. They will stretch out across the whole trail and they won't haul tail from the bikes. They just lie there and wait for you to go around.:thumbsup:

Cool! When do you see them? Morning or early evening? They normally won't be out during the hotter part of the day except on cool days in the Winter months. They like to soak up the warmth from the asphalt surfaces.

In my younger days I'd be falling off the bike to try to catch them... :hehehe:

Wildlife must be on the move for some reason. Connie saw a deer in velvet walking through the yard just a half an hour ago. Seemed to be sampling the grape vine new growth where we cleared the underbrush, and not in any real hurry to move along.

I usually see them in the morning. That's about the only comfy time to ride this time of the year. I occasionally will see a Copperhead or a smaller Rattler of one type or another and they both carry a "just come mess with me attitude". Those I just appreciate from afar.

Interesting. I did not know rat snakes came in different colors. Thanks for sharing guys.

Been keeping my eye on the bird feeders in case the big guy decided to stake them out for a meal, but haven't seen him around lately. But this morning I was watching a humming bird near one of those feeders and he acted pretty strange. Tail feathers all fanned out and not landing on the feeder, weaving all around it instead. Sure enough, a small gray rat snake was perched on a tree branch close to the feeder. So had to go out and pull him out of the tree. He's only about 3 ft. long. Only musked a little bit but beyond that didn't seem at all perturbed about being handled. Got him in bagged up and will run him out to the national forest later today or tomorrow.

A rat snakes camo is sooooo good. Gotta look hard.
:eek:

looks to be a 2.3? I know some of the "industrial" engines actually used the turbo exhaust manifold with a T-3 flange, I saw one one time I think in a fork lift or something like that, that used the manifold....