| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| sandi |
Posted - 20/07/2011 : 20:41:01
I'm often in the forest walking my dogs and as a wildlife/bird watching type, I often see a lot of reptiles on my walks. Last week was the first time i saw an adder and a grass snake within a week so I was buzzing!
The adder came first. I seemed to sense it because something made me put my dog on the lead and look into the undergrowth to my left. I just spotted it as it slipped deeper under the gorse bush.
2 days later, the same patch of forest...
There is an old war relic, a water filled bunker of some type that has made a large and very deep pond. Its a wildlife haven! I normally stop to watch dragonflies etc but this time i saw a grass snake swim out from under the water lilies, it may have seen me first as it flipped over and dived into the gloom. As it dived i saw the most wonderful lime green colour of its belly! Thats the first time i have ever seen a grass snakes belly scales!
I feel quite honoured to have seen these, they seem to be more elusive these days. |
| 18 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| anatess |
Posted - 21/07/2011 : 21:09:03
quote:
Originally posted by Welly
Where do you live! That is an awesome amount of wildlife
I live in the northeastern part of Florida.
The climate here makes it really conducive to wildlife. You drive 4 hours south and it's where the Burmese Python "invasion" is.
Steve Irwin held a show a few miles from where I live a long time ago. He had one of the local herpetologists with him and they went field herping.
I grew up in the Philippines and I remember when I was a teen-ager we went to play tennis very early in the morning and when my friend went to pick up the ball by the net, he noticed that a reticulated python was stretched out across the bottom of the net! He was a giant! I mean - a tennis net is what, 10 meters? And he was laid out on half of the net, so he's at least 5 meters long. Unfortunately, Filipinos are very superstitious and think snakes are evil - so my dad and his friends killed the snake.
But it is just more magical to see them in a native habitat instead of in a tennis court, you know? It's the same thing with the snakes in my backyard. It just seems much more awesome to see them in the Everglades or in the forests than in my "manicured" yard.
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| n/a |
Posted - 21/07/2011 : 19:43:47
quote:
Originally posted by anatess
quote:
Originally posted by BurnedAtTheStake
Wow - those are amazing - you are lucky (though sorry to hear about the hurricane. )
Glad you managed to rescue that milk snake - I thought there was a saying about 'red and black - venom lack' that people quote in areas where milks and corals live in the wild. Good thing you were on hand.
Red on black friend of jack
Red on yellow kill a fellow
Or something like that. But, that's really the good-and-bad of my neighborhood. Most of them are scared of snakes - there have been many instances since we moved here back in 2006 where a neighbor would find a racer in the garden (racers are common here) and immediately take a shovel to its head. My next-door neighbor tried to put a shotgun to the Southern Banded Watersnake when it crossed their yard.
The good of it is, since we got the snakes, all the neighborhood kids like to hang out at my house to check out the snakes, so at least they're not snake-phobic anymore.
 !!!
Glad you're managing to educate your neighbours! |
| sandi |
Posted - 21/07/2011 : 19:39:25
That is fabulous! We just dont compete on the reptile front in this country! Still, what we have we love!
Great photos anatess, wish i had my camera with me when i saw our wild friends but even if i had i would have missed the shot...all over in a few seconds!
Our only other snake in Britain is the smooth snake, very rare and endangered. I last saw one about 20 years ago. Has anyone seen one recently??? |
| anatess |
Posted - 21/07/2011 : 17:18:42
quote:
Originally posted by BurnedAtTheStake
Wow - those are amazing - you are lucky (though sorry to hear about the hurricane.)
Glad you managed to rescue that milk snake - I thought there was a saying about 'red and black - venom lack' that people quote in areas where milks and corals live in the wild. Good thing you were on hand.
Red on black friend of jack
Red on yellow kill a fellow
Or something like that. But, that's really the good-and-bad of my neighborhood. Most of them are scared of snakes - there have been many instances since we moved here back in 2006 where a neighbor would find a racer in the garden (racers are common here) and immediately take a shovel to its head. My next-door neighbor tried to put a shotgun to the Southern Banded Watersnake when it crossed their yard.
The good of it is, since we got the snakes, all the neighborhood kids like to hang out at my house to check out the snakes, so at least they're not snake-phobic anymore. |
| Welly |
Posted - 21/07/2011 : 17:13:39
Where do you live! That is an awesome amount of wildlife |
| n/a |
Posted - 21/07/2011 : 17:00:53
Wow - those are amazing - you are lucky (though sorry to hear about the hurricane.)
Glad you managed to rescue that milk snake - I thought there was a saying about 'red and black - venom lack' that people quote in areas where milks and corals live in the wild. Good thing you were on hand. |
| anatess |
Posted - 21/07/2011 : 16:45:00
I found the old picture I took of this baby milksnake that was in my neighbor's front yard. It was the size of an earthworm and my neighbor freaked out because she thought it was one of those coral snakes! So she called my husband to kill it because they can't leave the house (it was by the front door) - so, my husband picked it up and put it in the jar, we took a picture, then he let the milksnake go in our backyard. We haven't seen him since.
This is a picture of the Southern Banded Watersnake that sometimes come to visit our tiny pond in the backyard:
And this is the snapper turtle that got washed into our backyard from the lake when we had a hurricane 2 years ago:
 |
| jhk2005 |
Posted - 21/07/2011 : 11:35:12
Same here Paul, I kept my eyes peeled all day without so much as a whiff of scales (if u don't count the gorgeous burm in their reptile house that is!) I'll have to try again this year, see if I strike lucky! |
| Welly |
Posted - 21/07/2011 : 09:41:39
quote:
Originally posted by BurnedAtTheStake
My Welsh brother in law has slow-worms living in his back garden - that would be my idea of paradise ...apparently aesculapian snakes have become colonised in North Wales too.
I was up at the welsh mountain zoo this year, i did ask about them and the woman did say they are about. Although in typical fashion i saw nothing. I also believe there to be a colony surrounding regents park as well |
| sandi |
Posted - 21/07/2011 : 08:52:38
I'm always on the look out for them, up to 5 times a week im in their territory but I dont see that many. This was an enchanted day! On the same walk as the grass snake appeared I also spotted a Gold Crest, he was only about 2 feet away from me!
Probably lucked out for the rest of the year now! |
| BlueDragon |
Posted - 21/07/2011 : 08:43:31
I live on the edge of the middle of nowhere and I've yet to see a single Snake or lizard : (
I go walking in the moors and in feilds, through farms, and in the woods...
I did see a dead Slow Worm once, in the road... It was cut up into equal peices so I guessed it had got caught in some farm machinery or something.
I'll have to look harder now. |
| anatess |
Posted - 20/07/2011 : 23:24:18
Isn't that great??? That's so awesome to see them in the wild.
That's how I got into snakes. My husband would be doing yardwork (mind you, we live in the city, but these critters are all over Florida) and would find a racer snake in the bushes. He would catch it, put it in a glass jar for the kids to look at, then let him go back to the bushes.
Sometimes they would go in my garage!
And when we added the pond a few years ago, we gained a resident Southern Banded Watersnake. He's a bit scary because he looks almost like the venomous water mocassin - which we sometimes find around the lake behind my house.
But, it's just, somehow, much different when you find them in the "forest", not your backyard, you know? It's, like what everyone said, magical.
You gotta bring a camera next time! |
| n/a |
Posted - 20/07/2011 : 23:10:48
My Welsh brother in law has slow-worms living in his back garden - that would be my idea of paradise ...apparently aesculapian snakes have become colonised in North Wales too. |
| Welly |
Posted - 20/07/2011 : 22:39:35
I have been hunting and can't find diddly squat. Yet a mate of mine has found adders, grass snakes and even lizard all in the same day! |
| Lotabob |
Posted - 20/07/2011 : 21:22:55
So jealous, I've never seen a wild snake, even the one that bit me, lol. I've decided next time I'm over at the mothers I will be going Adder hunting, not to touch just to look and photograph, I've felt their bite before, not going through that again. |
| n/a |
Posted - 20/07/2011 : 20:49:59
Aww - fingers and EVERYTHING crossed!
Good luck Willow!! |
| sandi |
Posted - 20/07/2011 : 20:46:35
It was a magical moment....truly!
Willow is doing good, she goes for her last op on monday. Will keep you posted! |
| n/a |
Posted - 20/07/2011 : 20:43:31
OMG!
That must have been magical! I'm so envious!
By the way how's Willow? Has she had her op? |
