SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Gallery    Today. In the swamp. (lots if pics)
Page 1 2 
Go
New
Find
Notify
Tools
Reply
  
Today. In the swamp. (lots if pics) Login/Join 
Truth Wins
Picture of Micropterus
posted
As the various things go on around us, it's life (and death) as normal, in the swamp.

Red Belly Water Snake eating a Bullfrog.




A Northern Black Racer.



A Whitetail Deeropotomus, apparently.



_____________
"I enter a swamp as a sacred place—a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength—the marrow of Nature." - Henry David Thoreau
 
Posts: 4285 | Location: In The Swamp | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Truth Wins
Picture of Micropterus
posted Hide Post
Some Skinks.



Turtles. Billions of them. They will take over the earth when man is gone. That whole teenage mutant turtle thing? Not so far fetched.



One of the Ancients, up from the depths. He will rule the earth. I'm sure of it.



_____________
"I enter a swamp as a sacred place—a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength—the marrow of Nature." - Henry David Thoreau
 
Posts: 4285 | Location: In The Swamp | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Truth Wins
Picture of Micropterus
posted Hide Post
A Redfin Pickerel.


A Largemouth guarding her nest.


_____________
"I enter a swamp as a sacred place—a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength—the marrow of Nature." - Henry David Thoreau
 
Posts: 4285 | Location: In The Swamp | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Truth Wins
Picture of Micropterus
posted Hide Post
And, of course, the current kings and queens of the swamp. Those beautiful Cottonmouths.






Some stacked photos.





_____________
"I enter a swamp as a sacred place—a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength—the marrow of Nature." - Henry David Thoreau
 
Posts: 4285 | Location: In The Swamp | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Triggers don't
pull themselves
Picture of mdblanton
posted Hide Post
Terrific pics. Circle of life with the water snake and frog but the frog seems to be sitting there thinking of the inevitable.

Michael
 
Posts: 1093 | Location: Petal, MS | Registered: January 21, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
I'm Pickle Rick!
Picture of Pickle Rick
posted Hide Post
Good stuff. Thanks for sharing..


______________________________
" Formally known as GotDogs "
 
Posts: 2862 | Location: Lancaster, PA. | Registered: February 06, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Age Quod Agis
Picture of ArtieS
posted Hide Post
Beautiful pictures. That's a big snapper. I've spent LOTS of time in the Florida swamps, lakes and rivers, and I have never seen a snapper in the wild.



"I vowed to myself to fight against evil more completely and more wholeheartedly than I ever did before. . . . That’s the only way to pay back part of that vast debt, to live up to and try to fulfill that tremendous obligation."

Alfred Hornik, Sunday, December 2, 1945 to his family, on his continuing duty to others for surviving WW II.
 
Posts: 12743 | Location: Central Florida | Registered: November 02, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Knows too little
about too much
Picture of rduckwor
posted Hide Post
Black Racer in a classic pose: periscoping.

Water Moccasin or Banded Water Snake??

Great pictures!

Thanks,

RMD




TL Davis: “The Second Amendment is special, not because it protects guns, but because its violation signals a government with the intention to oppress its people…”
Remember: After the first one, the rest are free.
 
Posts: 20302 | Location: L.A. - Lower Alabama | Registered: April 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of maladat
posted Hide Post
Your water moccasins have a LOT more color variation than the ones I'm used to seeing here.

Ours are usually a dark muddy brown or gray brown and the banding ranges from barely visible to nonexistent.
 
Posts: 6319 | Location: CA | Registered: January 24, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of maladat
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by rduckwor:
Water Moccasin or Banded Water Snake??


Absolutely 100% water moccasin. The color and pattern of each species vary enough that they can look like each other but the head shape is very distinctive.
 
Posts: 6319 | Location: CA | Registered: January 24, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Truth Wins
Picture of Micropterus
posted Hide Post
When the Cottonmouths are dry, they are mostly uni-colored. If I find one up in the woods from the swamp or see one that's been out of the water for awhile, this is what they tend to look like.
Sort of a flat earth sort of color.


When they are wet, the colors really show. This swamp has cottonmouths with two distinct color patterns:

Green and black


Orange/yellow and black. This color pattern seems to be the majority. I've only seen a couple of the green and black variety.


_____________
"I enter a swamp as a sacred place—a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength—the marrow of Nature." - Henry David Thoreau
 
Posts: 4285 | Location: In The Swamp | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Fire for effect
posted Hide Post
Moccasins down here in south Georgia look a little different. Juveniles are light and dark brown banded, but mature cottonmouths are a dark charcoal grey, almost dull black, but you can still see the bands. You can usually see the thin yellow strip on the chin, regardless of age. The mouth, when open is still white!



"Ride to the sound of the big guns."
 
Posts: 7210 | Location: South Georgia | Registered: May 13, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of maladat
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Micropterus:
When the Cottonmouths are dry, they are mostly uni-colored.

... snip ...

When they are wet, the colors really show.


That could explain it, most of my water moccasin encounters have been in East Texas pine woods near rivers or swampy areas but not right in the water.

The patterns on the snakes in your pictures are really striking. Great photos.
 
Posts: 6319 | Location: CA | Registered: January 24, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Truth Wins
Picture of Micropterus
posted Hide Post
There used to be more in my city, but they've disappeared. There used to be a drainage ditch at the back of a big business park that had cottonmouths in it. These were mostly black with white chins and lips. But I haven't seen or heard of any there in many years. In fact, about the time I actually noticed there were no more, the muskrat population exploded and caused all sorts of damage to the grounds around the ditch system. The ground would give way due to all the tunnels they dug.


_____________
"I enter a swamp as a sacred place—a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength—the marrow of Nature." - Henry David Thoreau
 
Posts: 4285 | Location: In The Swamp | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Muzzle flash
aficionado
Picture of flashguy
posted Hide Post
Sorry--in my book Cottonmouths are only beautiful if behind glass. Nice pictures, though.

flashguy




Texan by choice, not accident of birth
 
Posts: 27902 | Location: Dallas, TX | Registered: May 08, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Mistake Not...
Picture of Loswsmith
posted Hide Post
Gorgous pics! My youngest son (9) was a huge fan of the turtle pics. Especially the snapper!


___________________________________________
Life Member NRA & Washington Arms Collectors

Mistake not my current state of joshing gentle peevishness for the awesome and terrible majesty of the towering seas of ire that are themselves the milquetoast shallows fringing my vast oceans of wrath.

Velocitas Incursio Vis - Gandhi
 
Posts: 1947 | Location: T-town in the 253 | Registered: January 16, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Truth Wins
Picture of Micropterus
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Loswsmith:
Gorgous pics! My youngest son (9) was a huge fan of the turtle pics. Especially the snapper!


Thanks. That snapper was huge. Well over a foot wide across the center of the shell.


_____________
"I enter a swamp as a sacred place—a sanctum sanctorum. There is the strength—the marrow of Nature." - Henry David Thoreau
 
Posts: 4285 | Location: In The Swamp | Registered: January 03, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of pulicords
posted Hide Post
Fantastic pics! Thanks for sharing!!!


"I'm not fluent in the language of violence, but I know enough to get around in places where it's spoken."
 
Posts: 10187 | Location: The Free State of Arizona | Registered: June 13, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of az4783054
posted Hide Post
Have you ever thought about doing a book with your wildlife images in it?
 
Posts: 11194 | Location: Somewhere north of a hot humid hell in the summer. | Registered: January 09, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Little ray
of sunshine
Picture of jhe888
posted Hide Post
Nice photos. Excellent.




The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything.
 
Posts: 53117 | Location: Texas | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
  Powered by Social Strata Page 1 2  
 

SIGforum.com    Main Page  Hop To Forum Categories  The Gallery    Today. In the swamp. (lots if pics)

© SIGforum 2024