Snakes

[loppylugs 8,429]

Rob and I got into talking about snakes the other day based on his Cobra avatar.

Thought being as this forum is "Owt abaaht Nowt" it might be ok to post here.

Nottingham does not have too many snakes as far as I know except maybe some two legged ones but we won't try to discuss them. :-) They are everywhere.

Beefsteak asked about a snake seen in Florida. Not sure what it would be but probably some none poisonous garter snake in such a public place.

Most of the bad ones in Florida would probably be around the Everglades.

Rattlers can be found in most places in GA. Haven't seen any right around my place but some have been caught in the area.

Guy, across the street from me killed a small Copperhead, also poisonous, after he found it near his yard where his kids were playing.

Most construction or outdoor types of guys can tell you a snake story down here.

Funniest thing I've seen here yet, if you can call it funny was down at the Okeefenokee swamp in South GA. There are plenty of Alligators around the national park.

There was a small snack shop next to a lake there and on the bank of the lake lay an alligator. One of those wise guys showed up who always knows it all and loudly declared to all around that this was a model or a stuffed alligator. When no-one agreed or disagreed with him he proceeded to walk up and kick the beast in the butt. At which point it got up on its four legs hissed at him and turned on him. He managed to get away just in time. People were scattering in all directions.

It was funny to watch but he or someone nearby could have lost a leg or worse.

Moral of story do not kick a "stuffed" alligator in the butt.

Fortunately No alligators in North Ga.

Dave

[rob237 89]

More than 50 years ago went on a Pavement School holiday trip to Dorset. On the second day one of our pupils was bitten on the hand by an adder, with which he had been messing about.

Typical British panic ensued with pupils being ushered away, parents summoned down from Nottingham, and severe changes of itinerary etc! The lad merely suffered a numb hand for a couple of days. Perhaps nowadays the teachers would have been disciplined, sued, suspended and eventually sacked. Adders remain quite common in the South-West. I've seen several whilst walking in North Somerset, especially following rainfall.

When visiting Utah's Zion National Park, we were told not to venture from marked paths as the Park is a notorious rattler 'hotspot' Seemingly the year before, a young Aussie woman had been bitten by a Western Diamondback within the Park's designated recreation area, when surrounded by dozens of other relaxing visitors!. She only survived because of her youth and physical fitness, although she was seriously ill for more than a fortnight.

Steve Irwin did much to publicize snakes in his original TV programmes, followed by Mark ? from Whipsnade and the outrageous caricature of an Afrikaaner - whose name eludes me. It was he who told the amazing true story of a South African who suffered a snake bite whilst searching for a hospital, following a shark bite...bad luck, or what.

BTW: David Attenborough's current Monday TV series on reptiles has it's snakes episode tomorrow evening.

Cheers

Robt P.

[Beefsteak 305]

As I said it had very dark colouration, either black or very dark grey, there were no visible markings.

The only other snake I have seen that looked like this was a Black Mamba, although I know these are not found in the wild on Continental America, it may have escaped from their own collection

I just thought (because I didn't bother to ask anyone at the time ) that a naturalised ex pat may know.

Another reason for not asking was my own personal experience regarding the American (Or any where else in the world for that matter) attitude towards their native Flora and Fauna. upon asking about the different birds of prey seen circling over the Everglades at a Fan boat ride I was told "Yeh them Buzzards are pesky critters , I sure wish I could shoot em"

Bearing in mind this is someone selling the 'American Wild life experience to us' I left it at that and decided not to ask any more silly questions to these intelligent people.

This wasn't my only experience of the natives not giving a toss about their national creatures. I asked in Barbados about the bird life and no one new of a field guide let alone where to get one. Although an ex-pat new of the "James Bond guide" (Never been updated and 50 years old)

I was out for a walk and there was an old boy standing there with his cow, next to it (and grabbing the bugs the cow was kicking up) was a Cattle Egret. Native of Africa, apparently a couple had got blown across in the sixties and the rest as they say is history (I found this out on returning to the UK and contacting the RSPB) Any way curiosity got the better of me and I asked him what they called it, his reply?

"Bird"

no I said we call it a Cattle Egret do you have special name for them?

"Cow Bird" came the impatient reply

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Most common snakes around my 80 acres are Black Snakes, none poisonous but will inflict a bite if provoked, Copperheads, very poisonous and can be provoked real easy, garter snakes, fast moving harmless snakes, also called gopher snakes as they like gophers. We also have Cotton Mouths and Rattle snakes, although in the 8 plus years we have been here, not seen them.

Where we lived in California, I killed plenty of Rattlers, they were a threat to my goats, for some reason the goat kids seemed to attract them.

[loppylugs 8,429]

Just came across the following. Hope the link works I have not tried pasting a link before.

http://www.wvec.com/news/topstories/storie...s.1aed2b52.html

That could be enough to make a guy move back to Nottingham.

Dave

[katyjay 5,091]

We get rattlers and bull snakes here, the latter looking very much like the former, except no rattler on the end! Bull snakes are more common at this altitude and are huge. My daughter had a python as a pet many years ago, her son who was a toddler at the time, loved to see it catch the poor little live mouse [its food]. Yuk.

[plantfit 7,640]

Ayup all,

We get Adders and grass snakes down the quarry in the summer months, nothing exotic like you all get though btu it's still nice to see them ....... from a distance!

Rog