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.

DAMN!!

RMD

There's a whole lot of NOPE going on in those pictures!

Nice photos. Thanks.

Excellent shots ,pretty specimens ,I think chest waders you need.

All those shots are from the boardwalk.

Personally that is a park I would stay out of.

Please post GPS coordinates so sensible viewers can avoid the area.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

It's Newport News Park.

My daughter went to college at CNU. I never did get to the parks. I don't think I will. Thank you, Ironworker.

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.

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

wonderful pics!

In the photo with the skink, what is that black shiney looking face down between the branches? It looks like something from another planet.

Para needs to change your CUT to "Walks with Snakes"

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.

Those a great pictures...and I've probably seen 3 red-bellied water snakes in 15 years...