thats a sad lesson about nature for your kids. maybe the other nestlings will have a better ending.

Enjoyed your story and pics! Too bad your scarlet snake was a DOR. I am always impressed with your pics. That was a really cool post you had a while back with pics of the red milks you found this year. I always look at your backgrounds. Elephant ear leaves, old boards, moss covered rocks. Some of those really make the snake stand out. I don't think everyone realizes how difficult it is to get a snake to cooperate sometimes!

when we had someone try to break into our home the police officers told us the number one thing we could do to help stop that and help them too was put a LOT of outside lights up, the more light around the place the less likely they will hit you, they will go on down to some dark house where they will be less likely to be seen. And also to get a driveway alarm. We have one of those also. It can be set up so that animals will not trigger it but a human or car or anything bigger than a dog would trigger the alarm which is in your home. There are a lot of junk ones out there, we got a very nice one at Northern Tool supply, it is wireless and was extremely easy to put up. We have considered cameras if we did that we would definitely put out signs. You know you can buy fake cameras and the signs to go with them that are just as real looking as a true one. We did not go with motion sensor lights we do not want them to even consider our house, our many outdoor spot lights go on at dusk and stay on. A neighbor down the street had his truck broken into last week, his is one of the dark houses. No one has been back near our house and in our neighborhood homeowners meeting the police used our house as an example of what they wished all of them would be like. It may cost me a little more on my eclectic bill (I have not noticed it) but for the peace of mind it is sure worth it. the driveway alarm we have Chamberlain Wireless Motion Alert System, Model# CWA2000 this one is also a good one Mighty Mule Wireless Driveway Alarm, Model FM231 the fakes Outdoor Fake Dummy Security Camera w/ Blinking Light SECURITY SURVEILLANCE SIGNS the other thing the police officers really strongly advised at the meeting was if you own a navigator GPS unit do NOT leave it or the mount anywhere in the car in fact be sure to clean the windshield so that the suction cup circle is not visible, they look for that, if they see it they know there is one somewhere. They said they are getting such good prices for them at the pawn shops the theft rate has gone nuts even in very high end neighborhoods, since they are likely to have them in their vehicles. I did have a GPS in my vehicle in the drive but it was in the console, of course the main place they would look. I no longer leave it in the vehicle and never use the window mount. Many of the new car dealerships are being hit hard with the majority of theft being the nav units, in the process of course the vehicles are severely damaged. Luckily in our case my husband was up and saw the guy at the glass door trying to get in. He was caught in the neighborhood a little later.

Oh how cool is that! I am going to bat this around with my sister-- these outdoor/nature ideas are interesting because it fits their lifestyle-- but as my sister said the other day, last year he was content with a bucket and rocks. This year he's a very busy boy.. perhaps too busy for these kinds of activities just yet. I am not the expert on toddlers so I'll talk to my sister. In the meantime, I think I have a great bag going! (and SHE still needs ideas for easter basket and birthday so she may just use some of these also). Again, thank you all for the ideas.. there are many holidays so what I don't use for this birthday will surely be helpful at Christmas and next year!