Here's the story behind the picture, and the additional pictures that go with it...........
While walking out to the shop this morning, I came across this little bull snake in the grass, trying to soak up some morning sun and get all limbered up. He was pretty lethargic, so I picked him up and carried him over to the concrete, so that he'd get warmed up and on the move again. It's pretty amazing just how quickly his blood got to flowing. He started out just crawling up my arm and acting like a long time pet or something, but within seconds, he got grumpy and aggressive. I figured I'd done my job by warming him up, so I was just gonna set him down and leave him to his bug, mice, and rattlesnake killing. He bit me on my hand a few times while putting him down, so maybe he just wanted to cuddle a little while longer...I dunno.
Anyway, before leaving him alone, I thought I'd snap a few pictures of him playing with the bottom of my boot. You can almost see the difference in his facial expression between the first and second pictures, as he was getting more and more warmed up...and aggressive. So after I took these pictures, I just left him alone. He stayed on the concrete for about thirty more seconds, in order to finish warming up, then just eased back off into the grass.
This is only the second live snake I've seen at Austin Acres in the 3.5 years I've lived here, and they were both bull snakes (the other one was over 5 ft. long). The only rattlesnake I've seen here on the property was in the mouth of Daddy Roadrunner that is one of two families of them that hangs around. So, if you don't want snakes around, hire a bunch of roadrunners to patrol your property.



And a little info about the bull snake, via Wikipedia......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullsnake Gary
Must be a female......