Not what the Weather Girls had in mind

There has been a fair bit of coverage in the media this past week about the brown tree snakes on Guam taking over the island and the various ways that are being tried to combat what is now a serious ecological problem. One of the more unusual methods being tried is the parachuting into the island of dead mice laced with poison. (If only the Americans had used mice sixty years ago rather than soldiers to take the island from the Japanese this epidemic would never have started)

The BBC and Huffington Post both gave the story coverage but the article in Conservation Magazine naturally gives coverage to the science of the story rather than the 'snakes in our beds' stories the other media outlets have mentioned. And by way of coincidence we had our first snake in the garden today, obviously brought out into the open by the warm(ish) weather. It was about eighteen inches long, grey/silver/brown and was easing its way along the front garden path and then into the undergrowth. It was clearly a snake and not a worm of any sort and at one point it stopped flicking its tongue long enough to have a rather large yawn.

(and yes I know it's a rat but the only parachuting mouse I could find was Mickey and he was alive)