It's a baby Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon).

How is that possible? We don't have any water here other than a little pond we dug for the frogs 5x8. Never seen a snake in there and I play in it quite a bit looking at dragonfly larvae, tadpoles, etc.

I always thought water snakes lived in water or hung out nearby it. I'm totally confused now :-)

Donna

Just checked online to learn more about them. That pattern underneath is a dead giveaway isn't it? It does say they travel far from water at times. WOW! That's just so cool! A new species for our habitat! Thank you so much!

That's the cutest little snake. I wanted to tell you I especially enjoyed all your bird pictures. I'm a birder also and was especially jealous of the pileated woodpecker on the suet. I've seen one in our trees 2 or 3 times over the years, but never had one at the feeder.

Hi Nancy ... we do enjoy all of our woodpeckers. They all come to the feeders. I create a bird buffet on our front porch each winter to have a large covered area of comfort for them. Heated birdbath and such. We get to see the pileated babies also and their hairdos are something to behold. Could we call it spiked?

We had a nest of them in our next door neighbors yard a few years back. That was really cool to get to see them feeding, etc. You can see the those photos begin here. You can close the window and look to the left.

I was blessed to get a short video of Pale-billed Woodpeckers in Costa Rica with a baby popping in and out of the hole shouting for food. It was pretty high up in the canopy so it's a bit shaky but the parent returns with something and he really pops out of that hole. The parent seemed to be bothered by me, so I stopped filming to leave.

Those are just too cute! I also saw some mantis egg cases. A funny story from when I was a little girl (back in the 50's). My brothers and I found some "cocoons" and brought them into mom. She put them up in some plants that were in wall sconces in the kitchen (that was the way to decorate in the 50's - LOL) telling us we can watch the butterflies when they hatch. One day, we came into the kitchen and it was covered with hundreds of little tiny praying mantis. My mom about had a heart attack! That was the last time she ever let us bring something like that in the house.

Oh my, Nancy! I can't imagine having them in the house. I was trimming back mums and saw one on a stem after cutting it so I put it between screen and window so it would be protected, but it wouldn't "hatch" until it was warm enough to do so. That was fun to watch and they were all over our front porch. Amazing amount of them for sure. So, I can well imagine how horrible that would be trying to get them out from walls, floor, ceilings, etc. LOL Here's a picture of them coming out.

Here is a link that might be useful: Baby Praying Mantis