A few weeks ago when I was watering my shade garden (see picture), I was startled by a fairly large (around 2 ft) king snake uncoiling. He moved pretty fast to get away from the water.

He was there the next day and the next. I looked for him both days but didn't see him until he'd been disturbed by the watering. I never saw him again (except once out by the pond) and assumed he had moved because he didn't like being watered.

But no, about three weeks later my yard guy pointed out a two-foot long snakeskin in the shade garden. I took it out to photograph it, but it fell apart. So instead I'm showing a photo of the large king snake I snapped last year.