Black Snake Attempts Baby Bird Buffet

On June 2nd I wrote about Momma Bird building a nest at the unprotected end of the porch. I was afraid a Black Snake would climb up and eat the baby birds like they have done at the other end before. Well today I heard a ruckus from the porch and peered out to see a Black Snake curled up on the iron fence a just 5 feet below the nest. The ruckus was caused by two adult birds flying around crazy flapping their wings and yelling in an attempt to drive the snake away. Those birds were not scaring the snake at all. I don't know how long the snake had been trying to get to the nest but then it dawned on me. Perhaps the Momma Bird was smarter than I gave her credit. A big difference between this end of the porch and the other is the gutter downspout is attached to this column. The nest is on top of the column. I wonder if the Black Snake was having trouble climbing up this column because he can't grip tightly around both the column and downspout where it is easy with a nice smooth column. I hope Momma was right and I was wrong. See what happens to the Black Snake in the next post.