Eastern Indigo

Not quite comfortable but having grown familiar with the blue racer that lives in bushes on the west side of the house as well as the green striped and much longer grass snake that prefers the front and east side, my wife and I were shocked to see, after being alerted by serious barking from Gertie, a new arrival  that would make three of those other snakes. Indeed, looking through the safety of the lanai screen, we guessed its length to be in excess of five feet and closer to six with girth to match my forearm.  At first, we imagined it must be a water moccasin, but the wife, who is now most reluctant to return to weeding and trimming our many flowering bushes, a task that requires wading into that greenery, conducted an Internet search and concluded the monster to be an Eastern indigo snake (Drymarchon couperi, i.e., "Lord of the Forest"), sometimes called a blue bull snake, that, according to the article, is the longest snake native to the U.S., growing to nine feet, dines on other snakes, including rattlesnakes (a plus there), and has been known to "kill its prey by wildly beating it against nearby objects."  Now, Gertie is fearless and weighs in at 42 pounds, but even so, she had better be careful--sound advice, too, for the blue racer and grass snake. The Eastern indigo is listed as a threatened species, nonvenomous, and not prone to bite if picked up, so I doubt I'll go after it with a shovel, but rather hope it eats whatever rats, toads and lizards it wants and then moves on. I am reminded of a rather bad poem I wrote as a young man, but can't recall whether or not I was talking about snakes.

He a winding motion makes,
routine of Eden's garden breaks,
strong men's breath he often takes.

He reposes wound in coil,
the self-same color of the soil,
then, "Pow!" some chick blows his head off.