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This cute little snake is a baby black rat snake and is also called an Eastern Rat Snake: Scotophis alleghaniensis). It is harmless. Often people see the pattern on its back and confuse it with a copperhead snake and kill it on site. An adult black rat snake is black on its back and has a white chin.

I found this guy on my porch by my front door yesterday.

In Southern Maryland where I live, the copperhead is the only poisonous snake.

Rat snakes and other non-venomous snakes have round pupils while Copperheads have an elliptical pupil like a cat’s eye. It looks like a small vertical slit in the eye.

If you aren’t sure what kind of snake you are looking at; it’s best to keep your distance.

Here is a guide to Maryland herps: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Plants_Wildlife/herps/index.asp

Make some doves out of recycled plastic and place them on your windows.

They look beautiful and they help prevent birds from hitting your windows.

Find plastic packaging to reuse like in the picture above. I also use white yogurt covers for the smaller doves.

You will find my dove stencils here.

Have fun making moody osage-orange guys. Collect natural materials such as cherry stems, beans, acorns and other seeds… Mix and match to create amusing characters.

An osage-orange (Maclura pomifera)  is a tree not native to Maryland but can be found growing here. My husband remembers having wars with his friends; they would throw them at each other. Boys!

I call this one the Grinch.

I call this one Oscar the Grouch.

I call this one Dude.

I found these horned squash bugs Anasa armigera feeding on my squash and zucchini plants in June. They look similar to leaf-footed bugs but horned squash bugs have two small horns at the base of each antenna that leaf-footed bugs do not have. I hand pick them off or let one of my chickens do it for me.

They can be quite prolific.

Here is a rough green snake we found near our house in Southern Maryland. The Kids and I enjoyed holding this beautiful snake.

The smooth green snake Opheodrys vernalis looks very similar to the rough green snake but if you look closely, the rough green snake Opheodrys aestivus has keeled scales on top. Note the line running down the middle of the scales in the picture.

Our property is near a marsh and has plenty of bushes and trees so it is a great place for this snake.

It is a good climber as you can see in this photo.

The rough green snake is a fun snake for kids to hold because they are so docile. Teach children to be gentle when handling because even the nicest animal will try to bit if it is being hurt.

You can guess what this is. To deter possible predators, snakes will release a foul-smelling substance. Skunks aren’t the only ones to use smell as a deterrent.

Yes, it did stink on us.

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  Are you having any trouble understanding some of the instructions? Feel free to send me a quick e-mail at HesterJane@FunInTheMaking.net. I’ll do my best to answer your questions. Do you have any suggestions regarding a specific post? Maybe you have a better way and would like to share it with the other creative people visiting this site? -Hester Jane