Here is a great photo of a black rat snake in action.   Photo posted on the Roanoke Valley Bird Club’s (RVBC) website under their Bluebird Trail page:    Source:    http://www.roanokevalleybirdclub.com/Bluebird%20Trail.html

I talked with the person who took this picture (Mr. Earl Morris, RVBC active member and County Coordinator, Virginia Bluebird Society (VBS).  It was witnessed this snake made three attempts to get past this stovepipe guard, unsuccessfully, and finally gave up.  There were active bluebirds nesting inside this nestbox.   This is a good example of how effective this design guard is to deter *most* ground-roaming critters.  It is a wobbling stovepip (duct) guard, and it deters more than just snakes!  It keeps other ground critters from getting up to the nestbox, too; not just the crafty black rat snake:  raccoons, squirrels, mice, cats….to name a few.  There are several places to get the design to build your own — inespensive to make:

Ron Kingston’s Famous and Effective Design online pages below:

http://purplemartin.org/update/PredBaff.html

 http://www.zbestvalue.com/baffle0001.pdf

http://audubon-omaha.org/bbbox/nabs/rk1.htm

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Habitat/WildAcres/wapredguard.asp

http://www.sialis.org/baffle.htm

Oh, no you don’t! Many thanks to the Roanoke Valley Bird Club for posting this picture. Source: http://www.roanokevalleybirdclub.com/Bluebird%20Trail.html