Garlene Eiceman first thought the birds did not like the food she was using in her feeders when she noticed fewer of them flocking to her backyard, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.
Then a few weeks ago, she caught the serpent in a nest where there had been three baby bluebirds. Eiceman saw a noticeable bird bulge in the serpent’s neck before it disappeared in the backyard.
"I started crying. I didn't know what to do," Eiceman told the Democrat. "The snake went down and up a wooden flower box, and it went out of sight. After that, all the birds disappeared."
She went to work removing any place she thought the snake could use as a place to hide. It eventually emerged, and she took off after it with a hammer.
"He would go thin and wiggle out from under the twig. I would run after him, and finally I turned my hammer sideways and I got him good," Eiceman told the Democrat. "I was so angry with that snake."
She hopes the ordeal serves as a warning to other possible predators.
"I do not want to go through that anymore," Eiceman told the Democrat. "Watching those birds brought a lot of joy to me."
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