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.

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.

A Redfin Pickerel.


A Largemouth guarding her nest.

And, of course, the current kings and queens of the swamp. Those beautiful Cottonmouths.






Some stacked photos.

Terrific pics. Circle of life with the water snake and frog but the frog seems to be sitting there thinking of the inevitable.

Michael

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing..

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.

Black Racer in a classic pose: periscoping.

Water Moccasin or Banded Water Snake??

Great pictures!

Thanks,

RMD

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Sorry--in my book Cottonmouths are only beautiful if behind glass. Nice pictures, though.

flashguy

Gorgous pics! My youngest son (9) was a huge fan of the turtle pics. Especially the snapper!

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.

Fantastic pics! Thanks for sharing!!!

Have you ever thought about doing a book with your wildlife images in it?

Nice photos. Excellent.