Snag Day

Bird photographers all over the world will want to kick me after reading this post. Why didn't I put out more snags a long time ago? I just got so tired of all my hummingbird photos having the bird on a feeder stand and not something natural, that a light bulb finally went off in my head. My snags are waving now.

Afterwards, I went to sit down and practice photographing birds on the snags, only to discover a Diamond-backed Rattlesnake had gotten there before me. I was momentarily startled, until I saw that he had eaten too large a meal, and was snagged in the chicken wire fence. He would either die there, or I would have to kill him and cut him out of the fence.* Glad it happened when I was here. I shudder to think of visiting birders happening upon him, dead or alive. Either way, they would lose interest in birding.

As I first discovered him

Close up because I could

After I cut the wire and freed him

Now I'm left with a hole in the fence, but that's fine. It's not needed anymore since I no longer use the area as a vegetable garden. It's now a hummingbird garden.

Back to my snags. Maybe I got carried away.

Test shot.

male Blue Grosbeak

I thought this spider had snagged himself a dragonfly, but looking at the photo, I think it's the other way around. I guess it's a female Flame Skimmer.

* In case you think that left alone the snake would digest the meal and slither free, I tried that once before and the snake died. I have removed all the chicken wire where the old garden fence was, except for a couple of short sections that I can't get to. I got all scratched and bloody in the acacia bushes just cutting this snake free.