Life as a predator does have its hazards ! What I find fascinating is to
ponder what would motivate the snake to climb the bush to investigate the
nest. And, it was so motivated that it came back again. I don't believe that
snakes can hear, so nestling sounds may not attract them.

Fortunately, we do not have large populations of introduced snakes that are
eliminating birds such as has happened with the Brown Tree snake on some
Pacific Islands. The Garter is a native species just trying to survive.

The actions taken to save the nestlings highlights an interesting dilemna.
The motivation to save prey from predator is strong in many people. We all
know folks who are just horrified when a Sharpshinned Hawk snatches their
favorite Goldfinch from their feeder. Fortunately for the predators and
unfortunately for the prey, we do not get the opportunity to intervene in
this drama very often. When the opportunity does present itself, we really
should ask whether intervention is the right thing to do.

Not that we ever could prevent all predation, but if we did, prey
populations would burgeon, with potentially problematic boom & bust cycles.
And of course, the Pewee is a predator, but we seem to value the moths &
insects less than our warm-blooded favorites, so it is unlikely that we
would try to prevent the pewee from completing a meal.

My own thoughts are that in general, we should let native species
interractions occur without interference. An exception might be where one
species has become so dominant due to imbalance created by human activities,
that we need to do something to adress the inequity if other species are
suffering at the hands of the new dominant ones. However, even such laudable
objectives are usually fraught with problems when we try to "restore the
balance."

The recent thread on killing the adaptable Canada Geese that become too
numerous attests to this issue.

Rick Howie
Kamloops, BC
rick.howie at shaw.ca