Unusual finds

[stev32k]

I had kind of an unusual event summer before last. I was sitting drinking coffee on our patio overlooking the pool just about gray dawn when a bat came down and flew the length of the pool. At the end he made a sharp upward turn, circled around and made another pass. He must have made a dozen flights over the pool , jinking up, down, right, left and flying very fast. It was very entertaining to watch. There were swarms of gnats over the pool that were attracted by the warm vapor coming up and the bat was having himself a good meal.

He would fly around and over the top of the house then drop down very low over the pool and start his run. On the last pass he came over the house, dropped low, jinked up, then down, but went too low and hit the water surface. He skipped about three times like a flat rock then rolled head over heel. I expected him to recover and fly away, but he couldn't he just tried to swim around and was not a very good swimmer. I got the pool net and fished him out and laid him on the side of the pool. He tried three times to fly off but could only get about a foot off the ground. He finally managed to fly about six feet and landed in the pool again. I fished him out a second time and laid him in the grass away from the edge of the pool. He sat there flapping his wings not going anywhere until he finally dried out enough to fly three or four feet. In the end he finally dried out enough to take off and fly like he should. It was one of those times when I really wished I had a video camera to capture the event.

 

[geekgranny]

Maybe an Eastern Yellow Belly Racer?

http://www.austinreptileservice.net/solid.html

--paulr

Thanks Paul, Keep those suggestions coming in. The Eastern Yellow Belly Racer is tiny compared to our Emerald. Note that adult size is about a foot, newborns only inches. Head and plates much different and color off. Our snake was true green and measured 36" with > 1" diameter (not circumference).
Our Emerald was larger than most of the largest Copperheads we normally catch and fatter, except for the one pregnant female we caught. We kept her until she had her babies. I have pictures of that, too.

gg=alice

 

[geekgranny]

I had kind of an unusual event summer before last. I was sitting drinking coffee on our patio overlooking the pool just about gray dawn when a bat came down and flew the length of the pool. At the end he made a sharp upward turn, circled around and made another pass. He must have made a dozen flights over the pool , jinking up, down, right, left and flying very fast. It was very entertaining to watch. There were swarms of gnats over the pool that were attracted by the warm vapor coming up and the bat was having himself a good meal.

He would fly around and over the top of the house then drop down very low over the pool and start his run. On the last pass he came over the house, dropped low, jinked up, then down, but went too low and hit the water surface. He skipped about three times like a flat rock then rolled head over heel. I expected him to recover and fly away, but he couldn't he just tried to swim around and was not a very good swimmer. I got the pool net and fished him out and laid him on the side of the pool. He tried three times to fly off but could only get about a foot off the ground. He finally managed to fly about six feet and landed in the pool again. I fished him out a second time and laid him in the grass away from the edge of the pool. He sat there flapping his wings not going anywhere until he finally dried out enough to fly three or four feet. In the end he finally dried out enough to take off and fly like he should. It was one of those times when I really wished I had a video camera to capture the event.

That is so cool. I'm glad you were there. We used to see bats at night. Then our pool light went south. We really missed the bats. Turns out we went several summers with a light that was okay but defective GFI. We haven't had a bat drown but maybe our nearby lake gives them some practice and the practiced ones (survival of the fittest) make their way to our pool.

gg=alice

 

[PaulR]

Maybe an Eastern Yellow Belly Racer?

http://www.austinreptileservice.net/solid.html

--paulr

Thanks Paul, Keep those suggestions coming in. The Eastern Yellow Belly Racer is tiny compared to our Emerald. Note that adult size is about a foot, newborns only inches. Head and plates much different and color off. Our snake was true green and measured 36" with > 1" diameter (not circumference).
Our Emerald was larger than most of the largest Copperheads we normally catch and fatter, except for the one pregnant female we caught. We kept her until she had her babies. I have pictures of that, too.

gg=alice

The web page says adults average 3-4', not 1', so it seemed to fit the description.
--paulr

 

[geekgranny]

Maybe an Eastern Yellow Belly Racer?

http://www.austinreptileservice.net/solid.html

--paulr

Thanks Paul, Keep those suggestions coming in. The Eastern Yellow Belly Racer is tiny compared to our Emerald. Note that adult size is about a foot, newborns only inches. Head and plates much different and color off. Our snake was true green and measured 36" with > 1" diameter (not circumference).
Our Emerald was larger than most of the largest Copperheads we normally catch and fatter, except for the one pregnant female we caught. We kept her until she had her babies. I have pictures of that, too.

gg=alice

The web page says adults average 3-4', not 1', so it seemed to fit the description.

--paulr

Major Edit after posting this the first time. The little spotted snakes in the in the post with snake pics are juvenile Eastern Yellow Belly Racers. So I have seen lots of them but never an adult. WOW :-D

I didn't go far enough down the page. That certainly looks just like our "emerald". I'm going to do some more reading but I think you have identified it correctly. I really appreciate your doing so. It's interesting that I have never seen one in 23 years living here. We are keenly interested in all flora/fauna and keep a dissecting microscope in the kitchen.

Entomology was one of my favorite courses when I was in pre-Vet; microbiology (again) when in pre-Nursing (math pre-during-post Physics). I usually see at least one new "bug" a year that I had not seen in previous years. The snakes have been pretty consistent over the years except that after the big lake (State Park) was totally filled the huge population of record size Rattlesnakes, crossing our property, started to diminish yearly. Didn't see one for 10 years until the juvenile that drowned in the pool a couple of years ago. (Doggies get Rattlesnake vaccine which helps to lessen the affects of venom.)

Many thanks, gg=alice

 

[geekgranny]

Here's a really good commentary on the Eastern Yellow Belly Racer. The described behavior is exactly like I observed in the newly hatched babes in my water filled pool drain when I had the pool drained for acid washing. The moment I touched them they started repeatedly biting at lightning speed. I scooped the rest of them into a container, observed them for a few days, and then set them loose. I like snakes but I don't like getting bitten by them even if they are tiny and nonvenomous.

http://naturejournals.blogspot.com/2007 ... -camp.html

 

[SCEADU]

This find was when I was digging a pool but none the less abnormal. On the north side of Atlanta there is a Civil War Battle ground called Kenesaw Mountain. I was digging a pool a few miles from the memorial where most of the fighting took place in an upper scale community. After about 3-4 hours of digging we had a depth of around 5-6 feet and found a rather odd stick. One of my trimmers cleaned it off to find that was about the correct size of a human arm bone. The home owner came out to see why we had shut the machine down and asked what we were investigating. I took the object up and showed her what we had found. She asked what do we do now? Haveing experienced a historical society shut down in the past I told her that A) we could call the historical society and they would most likely shut down the project to do a thorough excavation of the property or B) we could give the bone a proper burial and complete the excavation and say nothing. She chose B so we said a little prayer over the bone and reburied it further down in her yard. I am not sure weather or not it was actually a human bone or that of some animal but it was by far the most abnormal find I had ever encountered in the 12 years I spent as an excavator.

 

[cheddar85]

Not nearly as unusual as some have posted, but a couple of years ago when we still had our Intex pool, I was out vacuuming one day. Let me just say now, I HATE snakes!

Anyways, I stopped at a spot for a few minutes, admiring the crystal clear water on that hot summer day. Well, I felt something rub my leg, and I looked down thinking it was my cat. It was NOT the cat! What I saw there was one of the biggest copperheads I'd ever seen loosely wrapped around my legs! Living in SE Tx, snakes are quite common, and I know from experience that being slow and cautious is best around them. Apparently slow and cautious were not in my vocabulary at that time! I jumped probably three feet in the air, and took off running across the yard as fast as I could run.

Later on, after I calmed down, I went back over there to finish vacuuming (snake was long gone). Then I went inside and took off my boots...when I noticed 2 little scrapes in the leather. Now, I'm not positive they were from that copperhead, but the boots were only a couple of days old with no marks on them beforehand.

From that day until the time we took the pool down, I only vacuumed while standing on the ladder or in the pool. I know, I'm crazy.

 

[geekgranny]

Not nearly as unusual as some have posted, but a couple of years ago when we still had our Intex pool, I was out vacuuming one day. Let me just say now, I HATE snakes!

Anyways, I stopped at a spot for a few minutes, admiring the crystal clear water on that hot summer day. Well, I felt something rub my leg, and I looked down thinking it was my cat. It was NOT the cat! What I saw there was one of the biggest copperheads I'd ever seen loosely wrapped around my legs! Living in SE Tx, snakes are quite common, and I know from experience that being slow and cautious is best around them. Apparently slow and cautious were not in my vocabulary at that time! I jumped probably three feet in the air, and took off running across the yard as fast as I could run.

Later on, after I calmed down, I went back over there to finish vacuuming (snake was long gone). Then I went inside and took off my boots...when I noticed 2 little scrapes in the leather. Now, I'm not positive they were from that copperhead, but the boots were only a couple of days old with no marks on them beforehand.

From that day until the time we took the pool down, I only vacuumed while standing on the ladder or in the pool. I know, I'm crazy.

And people wonder why Texans wear boots.

Yikes Your snakes are about as unruly as ours. They are supposed to be resting and cooling during the day. Our copperheads frequently cross the hot, fully sunlit deck, usually heading straight towards my chair as I am in their "right of way" to the closest shaded area. All years but two out of 23 we have always caught any that we see and humanely killed them, in a bag, in the big freezer. One year I had the idea that they were territorial so leaving a chosen one around the pool area "should" keep the others away. We tried it for two summers in a row. WRONG Especially during breeding. Last year we caught four in a matter of minutes, all in the same 4 X 4 area; two adult males, one almost adult male, all very feisty and one very big sluggish female. This was <10 ft from the pool.

The only snake I like touching any part of my body is my very laid back California King Snake or pets as well behaved as mine and well proven to be non nippers. I like being in control around any animal.

That experience probably would have scared me white haired.

gg=alice

 

[geekgranny]

This find was when I was digging a pool but none the less abnormal. On the north side of Atlanta there is a Civil War Battle ground called Kenesaw Mountain. I was digging a pool a few miles from the memorial where most of the fighting took place in an upper scale community. After about 3-4 hours of digging we had a depth of around 5-6 feet and found a rather odd stick. One of my trimmers cleaned it off to find that was about the correct size of a human arm bone. The home owner came out to see why we had shut the machine down and asked what we were investigating. I took the object up and showed her what we had found. She asked what do we do now? Haveing experienced a historical society shut down in the past I told her that A) we could call the historical society and they would most likely shut down the project to do a thorough excavation of the property or B) we could give the bone a proper burial and complete the excavation and say nothing. She chose B so we said a little prayer over the bone and reburied it further down in her yard. I am not sure weather or not it was actually a human bone or that of some animal but it was by far the most abnormal find I had ever encountered in the 12 years I spent as an excavator.

WOW that is so interesting. If the historical society hadn't stopped the excavation the police probably would have, or have I been watching too much TV? :lol:

gg=alice

 

[lbridges]

...What I saw there was one of the biggest copperheads I'd ever seen loosely wrapped around my legs! ...Apparently slow and cautious were not in my vocabulary at that time! I jumped probably three feet in the air....

I can relate - on a fishing trip (Black River, Missouri) I thought I caught a pant leg on some sort of bramble, looked down and it was a cottonmouth (Measured later at 4'4"). My fishin' buddy says I could have qualified for the Olympic broad jump team and I didn't need a running start like most use.