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Crawling with Cottonmouths. Literally. (Lotsa pics) Login/Join 
Truth Wins
Picture of Micropterus
posted
Went out to the park again today. In the first 25 yards on the boardwalk through the swamp, I saw seven Cottonmouths. I saw ten in all by the end of the boardwalk. I also saw a Red-Bellied Water Snake, which is rare for my area, and a Northern Water Snake hunting in a tree.

Here's a few pics from today.






2 in this picture. See if you can find them.


3 in this picture. See the one in the background?






Skin and color variations.






See the skink in the log? He's heading for trouble.


Red Bellied Water Snake


Northern Water Snake


Oh, and here's a Bumble Bee, in case you like Bumble Bees better.


_____________
"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
Knows too little
about too much
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DAMN!!

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: 20404 | Location: L.A. - Lower Alabama | Registered: April 06, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Man of few words

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There's a whole lot of NOPE going on in those pictures!
 
Posts: 7859 | Location: NE Ohio | Registered: July 03, 2001Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Little ray
of sunshine
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Nice photos. Thanks.




The fish is mute, expressionless. The fish doesn't think because the fish knows everything.
 
Posts: 53302 | Location: Texas | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Avoiding
slam fires
Picture of 45 Cal
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Excellent shots ,pretty specimens ,I think chest waders you need.
 
Posts: 22422 | Location: Georgia | Registered: February 19, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Truth Wins
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All those shots are from the boardwalk.


_____________
"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
Living my life my way
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Personally that is a park I would stay out of.
 
Posts: 1756 | Location: The Backyard of Nowhere | Registered: August 09, 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
That's just the
Flomax talking
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Please post GPS coordinates so sensible viewers can avoid the area.
 
Posts: 11875 | Location: St. Louis, Missouri | Registered: February 04, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Truth Wins
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quote:
Originally posted by GaryBF:
Please post GPS coordinates so sensible viewers can avoid the area.


What's amazing is that this is in a city park on a boardwalk that goes through a swampy end of the reservoir that people fish, kayak, canoe, and paddle boat on. And there is camping nearby. This park is known as an "area of abundance" for these snakes. And there are no recorded bites on any park visitors in the history of the park. In fact, I don't think any dogs have been bitten. The only person recorded as having been bitten was actually an university student pursuing a Masters in Environmental Science who was studying these snakes in the park and was bitten while handling one during his research.

I see these snakes every year. They get a bad rap. What people see as aggression is really inquisitiveness. They will swim up to you and they float there and display their mouths. Getting them to strike isn't as easy as one might suspect. I literally squatted over a small one in that park that I didn't see and it it never budged.

All that, it seems to me, is quite amazing given the high density of these snakes in that park. There's lots of snake, and lots of people, and no bites - ever (except for that one researcher).

Leave this park and you have to drive miles to find another population of Cottonmouths. They used to exist in most of the wetlands and waterways in my city and area, now they are almost all gone. Killed indiscriminately by people who view everything, including a piece of rope, as a Copperrattlingmoccassin.


_____________
"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
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Predators of the Northern Water Snakes include birds, raccoons, opossums, foxes, snapping turtles, and other snakes.

http://www.havahart.com/how-to-repel-snakes





Safety, Situational Awareness and proficiency.



Neck Ties, Hats and ammo brass, Never ,ever touch'em w/o asking first
 
Posts: 55260 | Location: Henry County , Il | Registered: February 10, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Certified All Positions
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That's not a bumble bee, it's a carpenter or mason bee.

Bumble Bees have hairy rear ends, often with a stripe of yellow.


Arc.
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Posts: 27123 | Location: On fire, off the shoulder of Orion | Registered: June 09, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Sir, I live in Northern Virginia, not far from Washington, DC. I have lived in VA. for about 15 years. I am a political refugee from Maryland. I have been exploring the state. I like it very much and I am glad I moved here. Could you please post the location of that park? I think I want to stay well away from it. Thanks, Ironworker.
 
Posts: 623 | Location: northern VA. | Registered: August 18, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Truth Wins
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It's Newport News Park.


_____________
"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
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My daughter went to college at CNU. I never did get to the parks. I don't think I will. Thank you, Ironworker.
 
Posts: 623 | Location: northern VA. | Registered: August 18, 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
Picture of vthoky
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quote:
Originally posted by Micropterus:
Leave this park and you have to drive miles to find another population of Cottonmouths.


Please keep them on your end of the state. Big Grin

And thank you for the hairless bumblebee pic, to sort of even things out. Razz




God bless America.
 
Posts: 13990 | Location: Frog Level Yacht Club | Registered: July 15, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Gone but Together Again.
Dad & Uncle
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wonderful pics!
 
Posts: 3837 | Location: St. Louis, MO | Registered: November 24, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
7.62mm Crusader
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In the photo with the skink, what is that black shiney looking face down between the branches? It looks like something from another planet.
 
Posts: 17993 | Location: The Bluegrass State! | Registered: December 23, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Mistake Not...
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Para needs to change your CUT to "Walks with Snakes"


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Posts: 2096 | Location: T-town in the 253 | Registered: January 16, 2013Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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When I was a kid, my parents looked at a deer hunting lease near Falfurrias, TX. It was like that with rattlesnakes. We went out to drive around it for one afternoon and saw more rattlesnakes than I'd seen, total, in my entire life up to that point. We didn't end up leasing it.
 
Posts: 6319 | Location: CA | Registered: January 24, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Those a great pictures...and I've probably seen 3 red-bellied water snakes in 15 years...
 
Posts: 159 | Registered: December 05, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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