Desert Horses

Welcome to my horse blog, Desert Horses. We live in the desert southwest, near Palm Springs, CA, but board our horses up in our local mountains where it is cooler in the summer. I have 4 horses, all rescues. Here is the ranch up the mountains where the horses stay.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Sunday WARNING: Graphic snake photos!

I stayed home Saturday, since hubby was home.  Sunday morning, after he left for work, I fed the dogs, cats, and birds in the front yard.  They enjoy a morning and late afternoon feeding.  Anyway, I looked up and it was already 9:30 a.m. and HOT here in the desert (it was 107 degrees that day...).  I started to drive up to the horses and realized that I had laundry and errands to do at home and I really didn't have 3 hours to take out of my day, so I turned around to drive home.  I didn't get far when I saw a raven fly above my car with a snake hanging out of its mouth.  It dropped the snake right in front of my car as I was driving down the mountain, so of course, I had to go investigate.  The snake wasn't a rattlesnake.  Instead, it was some kind of gopher snake (I think...) and it was definitely dead, dead, dead!  There was a turnout not too far from where it landed on the road, but there was a lot of traffic that morning and I had to step onto the road and back off it several times to take these photos.  I wouldn't have stopped except that I actually saw the raven with the snake and now, with my newfound interest in reptiles, I had to take a closer look ***WARNING:  graphic dead snake photos****


Yes, it was dead.  I stuck around to see if the raven would come back, but during the short time I was there, it didn't.  I got home, came inside, turned on the air conditioner, and didn't go outdoors again.  Today it was 109 degrees.  It SHOULD cool off for the rest of the week, with temps down in the low 80's by Friday.  We are going to spend the weekend up in Idyllwild where hubby rented a 2 story cabin, with 3 bedrooms, and the kids and grandson will all come up for our 3 day weekend.  I'll have plenty of horse time then and won't be tired and cranky and rushed.

4 comments:

GeckoGirl said...

Funny enough, my husband and I were driving home on Sunday and came around the corner and ran over a snake in the road! The snake was getting some warmth from the asphalt and we have pretty wide tires on my car, I heard a pop and we both said, "Eeeeewwww" at the same time! So thanks for the graphic photo, I didn't go back to see my snake in the road.

Cheryl Ann said...

Oh, what that your snake? Do you want me to return it to you? (hehehehe!!!!!) Really, the raven dropped it right in front of my car! ACK! Ick! Yuck!

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

Awww...poor snake :( At least a raven or other critter will benefit from it's untimely death.

Wow...it sure is hot there!!

~Lisa

Sage said...

Many years ago I saw a hawk drop a snake in a field as I drove by. Never even tried to find snake in that field. I have respect for all snakes but don't care for them. I found a very dead half a snake in one of the horse feeders the other day after Star finished eating. Found it when I went to feed her the next meal. Don't know what it was and didn't like having to pick up a dead half a snake out of the feeder but didn't want Star having to eat around it either