Shocking Saga at Sand Dunes

[mvjo...@gmail.com]

Yesterday some friends and I saw a shocking sight that I will not soon forget. I was hiking and birding at the Great Sand Dunes with some friends when we spotted bird activity at eye level in an aspen tree on the side of the trail 15 feet ahead. Flitting around the tree was a pair of alarmed Dusky Flycatchers. Soon, we spotted a small nest in the tree, about 4 feet up, with something odd sticking out of the nest. My friend said “It’s a snake!” Sure enough there was a 14 inch Western Garter Snake coiled around the nest and in its mouth was one of the three nestlings! What a shocking sight to see! It was quite disturbing to watch but then again, this goes on all the time in nature, and is rarely witnessed. We had to swallow hard, and watch the drama unfold.  The snake stayed on the nest for a good 20 minutes and continued to grapple with the nestling which was long since deceased. The bird seemed so much bigger than this small snake could handle. We left the scene after watching this disturbing yet amazing event and headed up the Mosca Pass Trail.

 

Upon our return 45 minutes later, we saw the snake at the base of the tree with the bird nearly devoured. We left the scene under the mixed emotions of grief, sadness and amazement all chaotically working inside us as we strolled down the trail to the vehicle.

 

The event sparked a number of questions.  First, I never knew Western Garter Snakes could climb a tree so well and skillfully. I had always pictured them as ground-hunting predators, slinking through the grasses and brush. To see one in a tree definitely shattered my long-held belief.

 

Secondly, how did the snake know there was food in that direction? Was it a keen sense of smell? Or was it the sound of chirping babies on the nest? I am not exactly sure.

 

Thirdly, the snake was not large, being about 14 inches in length…not big as garter snakes go. But this snake successfully devoured the chick which was the size of a ping pong ball! It did take considerable time for the act to be completed, but I never knew snakes had such an extreme ability to accomplish such a feat.

 

 John Rawinski

Monte Vista, CO

 

[linda hodges]

Sure hope the rest of the flycatcher nestlings are able to fledge before they become the next meal. The parents must have been beside themselves.

Linda Hodges

​Colorado Springs​

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[Charles Hundertmark]

The snake may have detected the nest in the tree before climbing, but more likely, it was just systematically hunting. In New Mexico many years ago I watched a coachwhip systematically cruising cholla cactuses presumably for nests. Despite the thorns, the snake was able to navigate up and down the chollas rather quickly.

During the second Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas, at Riverside Park in Fort Morgan I watched a largish gopher snake hunting nests among cattails. The snake was swimming in shallow water while adult Red-winged Blackbirds followed its route scolding all the way. Periodically, the snake climbed among the cattails to check a nest. I couldn’t determine whether it was successful. Some of the nests may have been empty.

I don’t know if garter snakes can unhinge their jaws to swallow large prey, but I believe some snakes do. In that vein, in New Mexico I once watched a gopher snake on an American Coot nest. The snake was swallowing the coot eggs. It would open its mouth to encompass an egg. It slowly moved the egg into its throat. I could watch the egg move along the snake’s body until the reptile gave a slight twist, and the egg slowly elongated. The snake then engulfed the next egg. 

We now and then witness Darwin’s struggle for survival.

Chuck Hundertmark

Lafayette, CO

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[DAVID A LEATHERMAN]

Interesting saga. The snake involved is most likely the western terrestrial garter snake, which is highly variable in pattern but is usually fairly plain brown. Of course many snakes eat birds and many climb trees to find them, especially nesting situations with eggs and nestlings. I would agree with Chuck that rat snakes and bull snakes (aka gopher) are common tree climbers. The pink coachwhips in the southeastern part of the state have startled me more once going up or down trees with amazing speed. Rattlesnakes get ground-nesting birds on the Pawnee. Certainly snakes can open wide, certainly the real bulk of birds is less than meets the eye when their feathers are fluffed, certainly nestlings have more pliable bones than older birds. Snakes can swallow large objects by stretching bones only joined by ligaments (I.e., not truly fused), so it is not a true "dislocation". Achieving an angle of 150 degrees is possible in some species.

Thank you, John, for bringing this rarely observed event and even rarer documentation to us.

Dave Leatherman

Fort Collins

Sent from my iPhone

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[mvjo...@gmail.com]

I thought long about this and decided to post a few pics of the event on my webpage. Be forewarned they are graphic but give you an idea of what transpired. You can view 5 pics under "Recent Additions" on my photography webpage:

http://johnrawinski.zenfolio.com/

John Rawinski

Monte Vista, CO

[The "Nunn Guy"]

Hi John

Awesome photos of the snake with bird (and your many other beautiful photos)!

Thanks Gary Lefko, Nunn

http://coloradobirder.club/

[gladtobehere]

I forwarded your Shocking Saga to my daughter who found it "hard to swallow".  Great post!

Gary Koehn

[COBirds]

John,

That is  a great account and pics.  I would agree with Dave L. that it is a Western Terrestrial Gartersnake (which will have the western dropped off its name soon I believe - Thamnophis elegans)).  Most snakes will climb, many better than others, but especially the colubrids.  The aquatic snakes will as well (the Natricinae subfamily, or family now).  I worked on Guam with the brown tree snake for a few years and they are truly arboreal with a prehensile tail (they can raise themselves straight up from the vent to the tip of the tail - most snakes can't perform that feat).  They could climb trees like nothing - most species struggle a bit.  

You were wondering what attracted the snake.  They have a keen sense of smell and cells sluffed by the chicks and adults that drop below the nest and in the wind attract them to the site.  With brown tree snakes, an invasive species on Guam that wiped out 9 of the 11 forest birds, trapping was found to be much more efficient with live mice than dead mice or any type of lure (they would eat anything - found with rib bones in them and so on).  It was attributed to the cells continually sluffed and reinforcing the smell below the nest.  The wind helps it spread giving them an indication where it is coming from by the amount they can smell.  They are able to see and hear prey, but smell is their forte.  

I also have a recent story - I was in the Dominican Republic and a Hispaniolan Boa which was consuming, what I believed to be, a White-crowned Pigeon (just the dark tail fan was sticking out).  The boa was maybe 5-6 feet without much of a girth and fifteen feet up a tree.  It was hanging half out of a tree swallowing the pigeon which looked to be at least four times wider than its body.  Dave did a great job explaining the "hows," but I am always amazed how efficient they are.  

Great story - nature is amazing!

Tom Hall

Fort Collins, CO

On Monday, July 9, 2018 at 1:05:14 PM UTC-6, mvjo...@gmail.com wrote: