Bob that's a sweet picture...it pays to be at the right place at the right time, but I guess there's no wrong time to be at a pond.
I normally don't kill or injur anything intentionally unless I have to or to feed me or my family. However the snakes present a new kind of problem as my 2.5 year old daughter loves to feed the fish with me. Of course she has an attention span of a gnat so I let her walk around with the dog while I'm tossing pellets. I'm afraid she is going to stumble across one of these snakes and get bitten. Normally animals are scared of people, but a lot of times children illicit different reactions becuase of their size.
A bad experience now may hamper her enjoyment of the outdoors for years to come. To be honest it would be terrible if I couldn't enjoy and experience the outdoors with my children. So I think I am going to try to catch and relocate some of these snakes or at least harass them enough that they'll do it for me.
