Last weekend I was walking the Dripping Rock trail at Highbanks when I encountered Walter, one of the park volunteers, looking up into the trees. "Hey," he said, "Wanna see something really cool?" He pointed up into a large beech tree next to the path, with a large broken-off limb extending over the trail. And there...was a snake. My apologies for the not-quite-sharp photo, but I had to post a portrait of the black rat snake who had been lounging in this tree for several days when I saw it. Judging from the loops visible on top of the branch, this is a pretty good-sized snake.
Just for the record, black rat snakes are beneficial to humans and eat small rodents and bugs. They're wonderful to have in a garden and totally harmless to humans. And despite Walter's tongue-in-cheek warnings to passing hikers, they don't watch for people with straw (or white) hats and drop out of trees onto their heads.
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