This week I got an envelope of shed snake skins in the mail. An Urban Sustainability Forum (a program of the Academy of Natural Sciences Center for Environmental Policy) contact had been telling me about the snakes that live in her garden in Northwest Philly, and she sent me some of the shed skins to identify.

These are from brown snakes (Storeria dekayi) - the usual suspects throughout most of the City - but I liked how they arrived folded in wax paper. I'm half tempted to add some colorful dried maple leaves and iron the whole thing, which gets me thinking about why snake skins aren't used more often for arts and crafts projects.