Gluttony

Number two on the seven deadly sins list.

And deadly it was for these young Northern Water Snakes.

Look closely and you see a blue eye at either end of the 'snake'. That's clue to what went on here.

I think.

I first noticed it floating in our back pond, and I thought it was a dead slug. I fished it out with a stick and saw what looked to be a snake tail coming out of the mouth of the dead snake.

It was.

The head of the swallowed snake, shown here extruding from the tail end of the swallowing snake.

It seems one snake tried to eat the other. I suppose in general it is not a good idea to try and eat something the same size as yourself. But did the prey really find a way out of the backend of the predator?

To recap, we have a tail coming out of a head, and a head coming out of a tail. And two dead Northern Water Snakes. Sadly, these are the only young water snakes I've seen in the yard. Not the confirmation of successful breeding I was looking for.