2991 Garter Glutton

Thursday, June 17, 2010

No matter how far wrong you’ve gone, you can always turn around.

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I was picking black raspberries in the front flowerbed (told ya it was overtaken by weeds!) a few minutes ago, and almost stepped on a green and yellow striped garter snake.

He was about 14 inches long, very slender, and he had a bulge in his middle third so large that he could barely move.

I suspect I have one fewer chipmunk.

I thought garter snakes ate only bugs and other itty-bitty things like worms and tree frogs. They have small mouths, and I didn't think they are big or strong enough to crush a chipmunk skull. I don't understand how he could have swallowed something as large as that bulge.

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Later, after reading the Wikipedia entry on garter snakes:

Ahah! The other possibility is that it's a she, and she's very pregnant, and about to give birth! Garter snakes mate in the spring, gestation is 2 to 3 months, the young are born live, and she can have anywhere from 3 to 80 babies. So the timing fits, and the location of the bulge fits.

That makes more sense.
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