@Doc Edward Morbius ⭕ lol

It did scare the crap out of me as they always do! We've seen 4 snakes in the patio so far. The first was a 6 ft rat snake I almost stepped on a few years ago. A neighbor said t was known to live in our shed. We cleaned it only to find the skin it shed in the shed! We saw shed skin under a pot the following year after securing the shed. So now none of our pots are turned over.

The second was another rat snake measuring by the photo along the top of the fence about 6.5 feet - confirmed to be one of the longest sighted in NoVA. The interesting thing about NoVA rat snakes is they are blind but have a chemical sensor that causes them to follow the scent of their prey. Snakes are not the only wildlife we see in the patio area. The grapevine attracts a variety of critters - most recently some huge raccoons seen hanging from the structure housing the grapevine eating grapes upside down.

It is not uncommon for mated birds to nest in the grapevine. The third snake was a racer traversing the grapevine above the patio attempting to eat birds then moving out into the trees nearby stalking birds there. This last one was the first juvenile we've seen. I shooed it away under the fence with the broom.

Why do we see them? The county recently did work in the watershed which pushed wildlife including rats and squirrels out of the forest into the townhome complex. Maintenance put out traps and that helped until this year. A warm winter and long periods of heat are bring the snakes out looking for food.

Despite having beautiful colorful birds visiting and nesting, gorgeous butterflies and mantis, and even a luna moth from time to time, we have decided to have the grapevine removed for safety due to snakes and some humongous spiders that a particular scary looking type of mantis feeds on by injecting something inside the egg sac of the huge spiders.

It's interesting being near nature but they need to stay in their domain not inside our patio. We can step outside the fence or look out the windows to visit the forest watershed and its wildlife including deer and fox. Skunks tend to let themselves be known outside the fence at night when people are walking their dogs when they spray them. Most of the wildlife are settling back into the forest.

The key snakes we have to watch for are: water moccasins, copperheads, and rattlers because of the watershed being their local source of water. It is illegal to kill snakes in Virginia unless they are a threat to your life. We need the non-venomous ones in nature!

People are not supposed to be in the watershed but I've seen some there disrupting the ecosystem. Maybe I should put up a camera, stream it, then give the county the feed LOL We need to learn to live in harmony with nature - not disrupt it.