With the large hair quantities they could digest some but not all of it, and so like the egg eater snake they might regurgitate what they can not digest.

As far the the ground dwelling birds they may consume the babies. I don't know how big your ground birds are in the west but the Bob-White Quail adults here in Florida are too big for an adult female Eastern Hognose, the largest of US species. Now the eggs on the other hand, and again the chicks of the ground birds could be eaten by them.
An interesting idea to try would be to gather a few eggs of ground dwelling birds (if it is not illegal to do so) and offer them to hognose snakes at your sites, or even to any back at your house or 'shop'.
Another consideration is the sites themselves. Did you choose them for their high concentration of hognose snakes or for a variety of habitats to see if hognose snakes occur there? There could be something that hognose snakes like in their environment that ground dwelling birds don't like for nesting purposes? Could have to do with when the sun comes up and expose the birds and nests to X amount of hours of sunlight. Could be type of dirt and ground clutter for digging and building nests. Just an idea to look into.

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Show Entire Thread ]