A Southern Maryland Mystery

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NOTSMC

Well-Known Member
Well at least to me. I'm sure someone can offer up some intelligent theories on what could have possibly happened. A friend of mine killed two enormous snakes that were just outside his garage within minutes of each other. He threw their bodies out on the edge of his property. Yesterday, he walked out to take a look and both snakes were missing. Also yesterday he killed a third snake that was on his back porch and "snaking" up his sliding glass door. He took that body out by his bird bath. This morning that body was also gone.

My theories are that they either rose from the dead, that they were never really dead, or they regenerated new heads; all of which he pooh poohed.

What do you think? Who or what would eat a dead snake?
 
GregV814

GregV814

Well-Known Member
normally, I'd rattle off the legend of the "Snakehead man", that goes back to the 1930's near Owings that ate 5 wounded WWI soldiers, but you'd think I'm nuts......


I ran over a blacksnake hidden in the grass a few years ago. Chunks flying all over the place. Within an hour it was gone, I live near a ravive full of birds. They're natures janitors.

Now, back to the "Snakehead man"......
 
Gilligan

Gilligan

#*! boat!
PREMO Member
Somebody got a pic....

snek.jpg
 
Gilligan

Gilligan

#*! boat!
PREMO Member
NOTSMC said:
Yup, that's basically what they looked like. That's a helluva lot of snakes in just two days though. He's got two birds nest right near his house and there's baby birds in there. I'm thinking that may be the attraction.
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Wait'll you get a glimpse of the birds! :yikes:
 
Clem72

Clem72

Well-Known Member
NOTSMC said:
Never seen any buzzards around there. Is their sense of smell that acute?
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There are flocks of hundreds all over SMC and buzzards roam as much as 200 miles per day, so there is no possible place that you live in SOMD that doesn't have them. Many are the smaller black buzzard so you may not notice them or think of them as being vultures.
 
Gilligan

Gilligan

#*! boat!
PREMO Member
Clem72 said:
There are flocks of hundreds all over SMC and buzzards roam as much as 200 miles per day, so there is no possible place that you live in SOMD that doesn't have them. Many are the smaller black buzzard so you may not notice them or think of them as being vultures.
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I was gunkholing around some of the back creeks and coves at the head of St. Georges Creek one fine fall day when I happened in to a small cove that was almost entirely ringed by buzzards occupying every available tree branch. An amazing sight...had to have been at least a hundred of them. Curious as to what the heck they were doing, I approached the cove bank and saw a large bloated deer carcass floating at the waters edge. All those buzzards sitting there trying to figure out how to get at it...LOL.
 
N

NOTSMC

Well-Known Member
Gilligan said:
I was gunkholing around some of the back creeks and coves at the head of St. Georges Creek one fine fall day when I happened in to a small cove that was almost entirely ringed by buzzards occupying every available tree branch. An amazing sight...had to have been at least a hundred of them. Curious as to what the heck they were doing, I approached the cove bank and saw a large bloated deer carcass floating at the waters edge. All those buzzards sitting there trying to figure out how to get at it...LOL.
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shudder...
 
GregV814

GregV814

Well-Known Member
NOTSMC said:
Yup, that's basically what they looked like. That's a helluva lot of snakes in just two days though. He's got two birds nest right near his house and there's baby birds in there. I'm thinking that may be the attraction.
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we have some birdhouse tacked onto our back porch. Wait till you come out with a glass of tea in your hand and see the back 1/3 of a blacksnake hanging out of the birdhouse....Looks like Gene Simmons...
 
Grumpy

Grumpy

Well-Known Member
When trimming up ribs, port butt or brisket over at the beach, I typically toss them into a field and watch. Typically, within an hour, the buzzards show up to gobble them up.
 
RoseRed

RoseRed

American Beauty
PREMO Member
Who was it that had buzzards in her barn that had babies hatch? I seem to recall the nasty birds whitewashed the walls with all their poop.
 
N

NOTSMC

Well-Known Member
GregV814 said:
we have some birdhouse tacked onto our back porch. Wait till you come out with a glass of tea in your hand and see the back 1/3 of a blacksnake hanging out of the birdhouse....Looks like Gene Simmons...
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That's what scares me. There's a Carolina Wren we've been watching - don't care about them so much, but there's bluebirds. THAT makes me want to stand watch over their nest, if I wasn't so petrified of snakes.
 
Clem72

Clem72

Well-Known Member
Gilligan said:
I was gunkholing around some of the back creeks and coves at the head of St. Georges Creek one fine fall day when I happened in to a small cove that was almost entirely ringed by buzzards occupying every available tree branch. An amazing sight...had to have been at least a hundred of them. Curious as to what the heck they were doing, I approached the cove bank and saw a large bloated deer carcass floating at the waters edge. All those buzzards sitting there trying to figure out how to get at it...LOL.
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When I first moved to my current home the first couple of years hundreds of the things would periodically decide to roost in the trees on the back side of my property. The smell was horrendous.

I researched what to do, tried a few of the methods, nothing really seemed to work. And you can't resort to lethal methods as they are protected (or you can, but I wasn't willing to risk it).

Eventually I just took a large dinner bell and started walking into the trees right after they settled down for the night, rang the bell until every last one of them I could see had left, and I stuck around for 10-15 minutes to ring some more if they looked to resettle. 3-4 days straight each time they showed up and after the second year they haven't been back.
 
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