Does the term "yellow-bellied" refer to me or this snake? Both!
As I was doing yard work, I saw the bottom half of a Nerodia erythrogaster flavigaster, or yellow-bellied water snake, sticking out of the lawn irrigation valve cover. Mr. Snake definitely was not the only one who was yellow-bellied.
I was proud of myself because I did not scream or squeal; however, it DID give me a start. At first, I thought that one of my kids was playing a joke on me by planting a rubber snake in the yard. It was a pretty realistic looking snake.
I reallllly dislike snakes. I wasn't sure if it was dead or alive, but either way, it was not wanted.
My brave oldest daughter accompanied me back outdoors. She tossed a rock near the snake, and we saw that there was no movement. This critter was not just mostly dead, it was really dead. That made the situation a bit more bearable.
As best we can tell, the snake was likely after a tasty frog. I guess that would make our reptilian creature friend a cold-blooded killer... We've found that frogs like to get inside the valve boxes throughout the yard. Mr. Snake likely trapped his prey inside the box, went in through the opening just far enough to have dinner, but discovered that he was too stuffed to fit back through the narrow opening. At least he died with a full belly.
This reminded me of Winnie-the-Pooh getting stuck in the opening of Rabbit's Howse, as a result of eating too much honey while visiting his friend.
Oh, bother!
I waited for Mr. Smith to get home to figure out how to dispose of the slithery carcass. Neither one of us wanted to pull the snake out of the opening in the lid, so we tossed the 3' long snake, cover and all into the trash.
I'm sure the trash guys love finding this kind of stuff in the weekly collection.
