Predator

My day started at 5:30am. For those who know me a bit, you'll immediately understand I wasn't a happy camper: a morning person I'm not. Even our kids knew that: early morning = papa; late nite = maman.

Anyhow, my wake up call this morning was the raucus of two cardinal birds, right on the tree that reaches up to our bedroom's balcony. They are generally loud birds, but today... oy! So here I am, stepping out onto my balcony, hair asunder, waiving my arms to get the darn things to go away when I came face to face with that guy - a black ratsnake.

Turns out there is (was?) a nest of cards in the tree and this four-foot long snake had just made it its breakfast... The adult birds are gone for now; so is the snake. As I'm walking around outside today, I seem to be spending a lot of time looking up into the trees for a change...