Let It Be
October 10, 2014 -- I am honored when I see snakes like this in our back yard. This is a southern black racer, and its favorite food is rodent, although it also will eat frogs, toads, lizards, birds, and fellow snakes. Because I dislike palm rats, I have come to love snakes that prey upon them. This racer was catching the last few rays of sunlight in our back yard yesterday evening. Its scientific name is coluber constrictor priapus , but it does not constrict its prey; it swallows the prey alive. This past April, in my butterfly garden I saw a racer like this in the act of swallowing a black-throated green warbler alive. I'd prefer this snake would keep to a steady diet of rodents instead of having the variety of the occasional precious songbird. But I don't mess with nature; I did not attempt to save the bird. My copy of Florida's Fabulous Reptiles and Amphibians says, "This slender, graceful, and fast-moving snake is often found near human ...