Oklahoma Wildlife

Here in Oklahoma we have lots of critters.  I'm just not used to that.  I found these little guys, by the hundreds, all along my back fence.

Turns out they are harmless, but still creepy.

Then, about a month ago, Lydia spotted this guy, out her bedroom window...
So I stepped out to take a few pictures, while he munched on a breakfast of frog.
I really was trying to find out if he was poisonous.  This snake was 3 to 4 feet long and I didn't think I could successfully kill it, so I wanted to assure myself that it was harmless.  Apparently the head shape will tell you--skinny being non-poisonous, and triangular being poisonous.  This one's head seems skinny.  But thankfully, 30 minutes later, the lawn care guys came to spray and told me it was non-poisonous for sure.

Well, this morning I went out to do what I do every morning, water my garden.  My cucumber vines are climbing a jute trellis that I made, right outside my back door, so I usually check on them first.  Then I will take a couple steps to the left to turn on the hose.  So I checked out my cucumbers and turned to go toward the hose and there in front of me was a 4 foot black snake, slithering along the house.  I freaked out and ran inside.  Shane came out back and we looked around, but the snake was gone.  I just thought he surely would be on the side of the house, but he was gone, that fast.  Oh, well, I got a look at his head and it was skinny, so I felt fine that he was non-poisonous.

Later in the afternoon I decided to lay out and get a little sun.  Ever since Lydia spotted her snake, I really try to watch my step.  I was scanning the whole yard while setting up my lawn chair.  I laid there for a couple minutes and then I just felt creepy, like the snake could at any moment be coming up behind me.  I opened my eyes and looked to the left.  Low and behold, the same black snack from that morning was flying across my lawn, chasing a frog!  (Sorry, I couldn't get a picture of that.)  I've never seen a snake move that fast.  I did not know that snakes liked to eat frogs, but I guess they do.  Here I see a frog, hopping as fast and far as he can, and this snake flying after him.  So, this time, I ran inside without screaming, so as not to scare it off.  He chased that frog all over the yard.

I came and got Shane.  We decided it was best to kill it, even though it's not poisonous, I just can't relax in my back yard, knowing it's roaming around.  So Shane cornered it by the fence and got it with his pellet gun.

Ty wanted to touch it, after it was dead and was really fascinated, so here he is holding it up...
And, here's another.  As you can see, it's about as long as him and he's over 4 feet tall!

I hope to never see another one of these again, but I'm sure I will.  (These weren't my first sightings, my first was a couple summers ago.  Perhaps I'll post a picture of that one one day, he came right up to my kitchen window and looked in at me, scrubbing dishes--he was over 6 feet long!)