Predators are on the Prowl

As we replenished the mulch in our landscape bed by the house last Saturday, Bob told me to turn and look at who was being nosey.  She was lying stretched out on the mulch, warming her long, lovely, green-speckled body.  This is one of my favorite snakes in Missouri - the speckled king snake - (see information on them and other snakes here): http://fisheries.tamu.edu/files/2013/10/Snakes-of-Missouri.pdf.
We had scared a mouse out of the old mulch and it had run right into the same hole from which she had emerged.  I liked to believe she came out to express her gratitude; what are those lumps in her body, anyway?  Check out the description of her foods in the picture caption below - "including venomous species"!  Bonus!

Speckled King Snake, sometimes also called, "Green" Speckled King Snake - non-venomous. Foods include rodents, bird eggs, small birds, lizards, and other snakes, including venomous species. It is immune to the venom of the various pit vipers in Missouri. The speckled kingsnake kills its prey by constriction.

With the warmer weather being more consistent now, the snakes are starting to move, as well as other ground predators, including raccoons, so it's time to ensure there is protection not only on your purple martin housing, but also on your bluebird, tree swallow and chickadee nest boxes!
We had placed 6" pvc pipe on some of our 4x4" posts, but we have been moving to stove pipe now.  It seems to be a longer-lasting material and has not faded and gotten as rough on the sides as the old PVC has.

This is 6" pvc - due to be replaced by the better-quality stove pipe.  A TRES pair discuss proper territorial boundaries with another interloping male.

The 8" stovepipe snaps together easily and with a coat or two of wax each year seems to be the best protection against climbing predators.  Albeit, there is nothing I can do about the woodpeckers enlarging the holes, or rather, nothing I really WANT to do about it.  If they want to nest there, let them nest.

I know I have raccoons and snakes about, so predator guards get put on all my nest box poles, even the ones that are mounted on T-posts as the one below.  By the way, I found out the hard way - these little rubber "catches" on the nest boxes below are absolutely no match for the strong talons of a Great Horned or Barred Owl.  We found one pulled open one misty morning and the adult female and her chicks had been killed, so now I drive a screw into the door from the side to keep it solidly closed when a flying predator attacks.  

This is a great video showing some different options for predator guards for your nest boxes:

For my purple martin poles, I have purchased the 'quick release' predator guards from the PMCA.  It makes my life easier with being able to quickly remove these guards as I do nest checks every weekend on these 4 systems.  I mount the inside support of this guard as high as I can reach (I'm 5'3" tall and my reach is comfortably about 6'8" high).  These guards are then high enough that a raccoon or squirrel cannot easily get above them and climb on up the pole.

As added prevention, some people also add netting on their poles. You can purchase what's commonly called "bird netting" in the gardening section (intended to keep birds from stealing the fruit from your fruit trees) of Walmart or other stores.  The netting with the 3/4" openings are recommended to stop larger snakes. 

Scroll through these posts to see some ideas of how to mount your netting to effectively prevent the snakes from climbing your martin poles:
http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29210&highlight=snake%20net

Other options for mounting the netting to your poles (good pictures of a very angry, large black snake from Louisiana in this post):
http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=27233&hilit=double%20layer%20net%20trap


Please note - the netting will NOT stop climbing predators such as raccoons, so it is best to use both types of protection.  In order to keep you from having to remove multiple snakes from your netting, the netting is best placed above the metal predator guards - and if you use a good metal predator guard, you shouldn't find any snakes in your netting anyway.  Mounting it above also keeps the raccoons from using the netting as a 'boost' to help themselves get over the metal guards.  After all, who wants to go out and wrestle with a raccoon, feral cat, squirrel or possum who is tangled up in their netting?  Thanks to all these preventative measures, the least of my problems come from the ground predators.
A last note about releasing snakes from your netting; as I mentioned above, our native snakes contribute to a balanced ecosystem.  With my speckled king snake and prairie king snakes roaming about (even nesting in my landscape beds), I have yet to encounter a Copperhead around my house.

Prairie Kingsnake - Photo taken 2014, by Aya Katz, Missouri. See more of her pictures here on her blog site:  http://notesfromthepens.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-weather-and-creatures.html

Without the good snakes, we would be overrun with venomous snakes, rodents, and other prey species.  You can easily remove the snake from the netting by grasping the snake behind it's head and cutting the netting to free it (yes, you'll have to replace your netting).  Place the snake in a 5-gallon bucket and move it to another safe territory, but please, do not kill it.  Love'em or hate'em, we need more of them to keep our environment in balance.