An Erie homeowner found quite the surprise when she went out to her yard to check on a bird's nest.
Instead of a mama feeding her babies, she found an approximately 6-foot-long snake coiled around the tree -- and an empty nest.
"My husband thought it was a rattler," said homeowner Ruxy Carroll Papineau, who just moved to the area a few months ago.
Papineau said she called the local animal control office and described the snake, but they said it was most likely a bull snake.
Papineau said she was "sad," to find the nest empty, because she and her family had been watching the baby birds for the past week. Papineau, who owns a photography business, lives in the home with her husband and their three girls, ages 5, 3 and 1.
"The nest is 2 feet up [in the tree]," Papineau said. "I went out to check on them. ... I think I scared off the snake because he didn't finish his lunch."
At one point, she said, the nest had five baby birds. Later it only had four. After she found the snake, it had none. Papineau said she hopes the bird doesn't put its nest so low next time.
