Then I spotted something I’d never expected to see amongst bean vines: a shed snake skin. It was a good three feet off the ground, which meant that its ex-owner must have slithered its way up there. First, who knew that any of the species of snakes in southeast Iowa would be capable of climbing up skinny bean vines, much less that they would still be active in mid-October? Of course, the skin could have been sitting there since earlier in the fall, or even the summer, for all I knew. That is, if the wind hadn’t blown it away. So maybe the snake had visited quite recently after all.

I’ve seen green snakes, brown snakes, and garter snakes in and around the garden, but I’m not sure which, if any, of those had been wearing this particular skin. It looks brownish, but brown snakes tend to be on the small side, and this skin definitely looked too large to have been of that tribe. So it’s a bit of a mystery, as I am not a herpetologist.

In any case, I’m sure it wasn’t just a sightseeing tourist; it must have been hunting. I looked around a little, and sure enough, I found several big, fat grasshoppers and immature stink bugs (at least I think that’s what the one in the photo was) in the bean vines. Dinnertime. Made me try to visualize how a snake would sneak up on and strike before the insect could sense the danger and scurry or jump out harm’s way. They certainly weren’t alarmed by my cell phone suddenly appearing just a few inches away to snap a pic.

So maybe this snake had still been fattening up for the winter even this late in the fall. And maybe shedding one last skin before it snuck down into a den to hibernate.

The ghost of a snake up in the bean vines, just in time for Halloween. Who woulda thought?