I have been walking everywhere not thinking of snakes. Of course they are out but out of sight out of mind. I have millions of dark toad tadpoles in my little pond and now the big green frogs are having a rendezvous. I have quite a few big yellow swallowtail butterflies. I got my first tick yesterday. Honey is full of them but he has escaped twice and I think is chasing rabbits. He will not come when I call and runs until he is exhausted. Usually he comes when I call which with the OUT command is his only good behavior.

There is a striped snake in one of my stock tanks that I use for saving water. I'll bet he is after frogs.

I haven't seen any snakes yet, but quite a few butterflies and lots of toads and frogs. A few box turtles too. Scads of blue skinks.

A luna moth hatched out at Ozark Nursery the other day, it was hanging on a post in the shade house. So beautiful!

No snakes (that we have seen) here either. I have seen flies, wasps, carpenter bees, a few honey bees....and web worms already.

DH found a tick on him; so far, I haven't found one and I have been buried in brush cleaning out the berry patch.

There is chickweed back there 2 feet high. I think the chickens like it better than the henbit.

It is big enough to eat a copperhead. It didn't run away. I think it would let me pull it for a weed.

Pretty snake! We saw some out on the glades today, on private property, a couple of big black snakes. And the ticks are thick out there. I have had quite a few even on our own property, mostly small seed ticks at this time of year. Reminds me I need to check my cat, she is a tick magnet.

Sandy

I've never seen one of those Helen. If it eats your copperheads, it'a a keeper though.
My husband and I are tied at one tick each. Hope they're not worse than usual this year because of the warm winter.

Luna moths are beautiful! I think I've only seen one since we've lived here. I'm waiting on a Cecropia to emerge that I raised last fall. I kept it outside over winter so it wouldn't emerge too soon and just brought it back inside yesterday because I don't want to miss it when it hatches out. It's seems strange that those things could freeze solid over winter in their cocoons and still be ok.

Lots of ticks in my own yard, I had four today alone and was just cleaning out beds. Cat had five. Time for the spray tomorrow!

helenh, I think that might be a speckled king snake, not sure. Very good to keep around.

Yes that is what I call it. It can eat another snake just a few inches shorter than itself. A kid years ago in a biology class was keeping two king snakes in a cool environment. I don't know what his experiment was but he had them out and when they warmed up the bigger one ate the smaller one. They ran warm water on it and made it spit the small one out or back off from it. I witnessed some of the drama and will always remember the incident.