Every Dark Cloud Has a Silver Lining

To me the dark cloud was the mini jungle that I created in one long stretch of the garden. As you can see in the above pictures that the place is indeed a veritable forest taken over by overgrown grass, creeping ivy, violets, wild ginger, that unknown-bushy plant(tree) and Jerusalem Artichokes. But, now I am dancing on the moon. Because in my jungle, a snake has taken up residency :-). Twice I tried to take pictures, twice it slithered away so quickly that I could not take any. I can't even identify it. Online searches make me believe that it could be either of the following (eastern ribbon snake, queen snake or eastern garter snake though habitat-wise it cannot be queen or ribbon. But Who Knows? May be there is even a hidden water puddle somewhere there in that jungle):

All the three above pictures are taken from Wikipedia. I do not claim them as my pictures.

It looks shining black with whitish (yellowish or some light color)stripes running along its length. I could not count if it was two, three or more such stripes. It is about two feet (or could be more as it slithers into its hideout at lightening speed) in length. It basks in the sun in this asparagus patch:



Last year I found this snake slithering away from my garden to that of the neighbor.



I was sad to see it go to neighbor's garden. I wanted it to be in my garden. But, this year I am feeling so happy that I am feeling dancing and clapping around the garden (too bad that I can't do it; I will surely then be captured and taken to an asylum) for my friendly neighbor Snaky's presence. Also, there will be no chance that he will go back to neighbor's yard as this new neighbor has cut down and cleaned everything in his yard (only grasses left). All online research is also telling me that presence of snake signifies a very healthy ecosystem. I am so happy that at least I am being able to create such an habitat and contribute towards the health of Mother Earth. Not only snake but a sparrow and a sterling has made nest in our house this year. The sparrow has made the nest in our patio window slides, just above our head and within our reach. They must be crazy to make it so close that we can reach it by our hand! The sterling has made it in the roof (actually under the roof. There is this opening, I don't why, a small narrow one to the inside of the roof; they have made it there). Whenever I go out into the patio to tend my plants and seedlings, the Father-Sparrow comes out, sits on the patio railings, looks at me and chirps out loudly. I don't know what he is trying to say -- may be scolding me for being there and scaring the babies and asking me to leave; or perhaps giving out a danger signal; or may be begging for food as they all have seen me filling out the bird-feeders.

Lovely story and a video to go by with today's post. Careful, it can bring tears to your eyes. Here it is. Whatever knowledge you might have of snakes in garden, please share :-). By the way, dear bloggers, all these are non-venomous and very shy snakes. If these were poisonous, I was not going to have that wild dance :-).