Did You know - outdoor edition

[WV Sawmiller]

Cavey,

   Good looking gopher. I hope he is a resident and not a captive neighbor. We had many as kids and I had a few for my kids when they were growing up and we were stationed in Albany Ga. They are totally harmless, gentle creatures and except for the burrows and sometimes snacking on somebodies pes or peanut vines I don't know of any harm they do.

[WV Sawmiller]

    Did you know that rattlesnakes will swim across parts of the ocean? The below article talks about confirming an adult eastern diamondback rattlesnake swam at least 5 miles from Parris Island Marine Base to Hilton Head Island. When I was stationed at Parris Island in the early 1980's I heard people talking about seeing one swimming out to sea while they were fishing near there. We knew there were rattlesnakes and a fellow Lt got bit while in the field with his series. He'd taken a hammock and tied it between 2 young pine trees and when he got up in the morning a big rattler bit him just above the boot top. (He had also been bitten by a cottonmouth in La so was a bit of a magnet for them). It apparently was a dry bite and after seeing the corpsman and being released he just loosened his boot strings and went on with training.

Our Series Gunnery Sgt was out for a run one day at lunch and caught a 5-6 ft eastern diamondback and draped it across his shoulders and ran another 3-4 miles till he finished his workout. There was no risk the snake would twist free as I remember it had suffocated or he had broken it's neck by the time he finished his workout. As I remember he ate it.

I was amazed to read in the article they have caught and tagged a big /giant female they nicknamed "Hussie" that is over 15' long! I thought 8' was about the biggest on record. I bet the recruiters don't tell many of their recruits about Hussie when trying to get them to enlist!

World?s biggest rattlesnakes can swim from Parris Island to Hilton Head

[WV Sawmiller]

   Wow! A 15' Eastern diamondback rattlesnake on Parris Island USMC Base and nobody comments? 

   If I saw one that I'd probably think it was a python and probably do somethinn stupid like try to catch it or something.

[Hilltop366]

Wow! A 15' Eastern diamondback rattlesnake on Parris Island USMC Base and nobody comments?

Trying not to think about it. :D

[WV Sawmiller]

   If you rush down to your local USMC recruiting office they may be able to sign you up for the next summer class. That should put you out at Page Field training area before the weather starts to cool off and "Hussy" should still be active.

[Old Greenhorn]

I'm with Hilltop. I ain't got time for that stuff. Our rattlers are 'protected' here. Was working a bif forest fire a half dozen years ago and one guy on the crew had a sidearm for snakes, and we saw plenty coming out of the burn area. One of the State DEC guys saw it and asked. The guy said "for snakes if they get too close". The DEC guy said, 'if you shoot a rattler I gotta give you a summons'. The Firefighter says 'if he comes too close I'm gonna shoot him anyway. Your paper is easier to deal with.' Me, I just step out of the way.

[Don P]

I noticed at the county fair the recruiters don't even look up when I walk by, maybe I just hadn't noticed before  :D.

I suspect at 15' he must have been getting pretty thin. IIRC this one was about 7'


 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know the common practice to catch rattlesnakes in Fla, Ala and Ga and possibly other areas where gopher tortoise lived was to chase the snakes from the gopher holes where they often shared housing with the tortoises? A garden hose would be run down the hole and used like a stethoscope to listen to see if they heard a gopher blowing or rattles clicking down in the hole. If they heard rattles they would pour a spoonful of gasoline into the hole and blow the fumes down into the hose which would chase the snake out of the hole. I have heard of people squeezing the juice from an orange, refilling the orange with gasoline and rolling it down the hole. Once the snake left the hole he could be caught by hand (Not me!) or with a pair of snake grabs (How long a handle did you say I could put on one of these grabs?).

   Before you attempt such check local regulations as I know Fla has pretty much outlawed such as the gopher tortoises were being killed on injured in the process.

[Don P]

You cross near where that one was caught pretty often, he was up on Big Walker Mt. near the tunnels.

[WV Sawmiller]

Don,

   I'd bet it was a big canebrake/timber rattler as we are too far north for the Eastern diamondback IIRC.

[Don P]

Yes, he was a timber rattler if I remember right, one of those guys was our plumber on the job at the time. It's been awhile, that was back when we really had to shrink our pics to store them. You'd probably be dealing with that snake's grandbabies by now. Hmm, must be something about that mountain and plumbers. It made me remember a job several years before that, our plumber came in late, bedraggled, worn out. He had shot a big bear up on Walker and he said every time he tried to move it, it went further down the mountain where he did not want it to go. He had spent all day cutting and packing out.

Not being a plumber, I'm kinda scared to go up there.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know the rattlesnakes with the worst temper appear to me western diamondback and the pygmy rattlesnake?  I have never been around western diamondbacks but hear they are responsible for most bite in the western USA. The pygmy rattlesnake seems to have a Napoleon complex with a real chip on his shoulder and seems to want to make up for his small size with an aggressive attitude. Both seem to be species better left alone.

   You will hear of many tales of people stepping right beside an eastern diamondback or timber rattler and it either did nothing, crawled away or finally started to rattle as a warning but made no attempt to strike. 

[Magicman]

I agree about the pygmy. 



 
That rattle is no more than a quarter inch long.
 
This, probably female, had the worst attitude that I have ever seen a snake have.  I wish that we had opened her up to see if she was pregnant.

[Don P]

Is that different than the little prairie rattler we ran into in the NE sandhiils?

[WV Sawmiller]

Don,

  I think the western diamondback is much larger than the prairie rattler. Isn't it pretty ill-tempered too?

Lynn,

   I have heard the pygmy rattler buzzing described as very high pitched and people think its an insect or such where an eastern diamondback or canebrake with have the chills racing each other up and down your back. I don't even like to hear them buzzing in a glass cage!

[Magicman]

I have never heard a rattlesnake rattle.

[doc henderson]

we had big rattlers in western Ks.  Here in the Wichita area, I have only seen Massasauga.  I had one in the yard my dog alerted me to.  I have seen several dead and brought to the hospital after a snake bite for ID.  the one in my yard, got injured as I dethatched the yard.  was resting on the sidewalk.  it had rattles but made no sound.

[Ljohnsaw]

We get a rattler every other year or so. To me, they sound like a sprinkler hissing. I stop and think, the sprinklers shouldn't be running now or, there isn't a sprinkler over there!

[WV Sawmiller]

I have never heard a rattlesnake rattle.

I am amazed. I figured they were common and you'd have heard many of them in your area.

 I've encountered and heard them while picking blackberries and could not see them in the briers. I remember one in tall broom sage along the narrow, overgrown path to my grandfather's garden in Dixie County Fla when I was a kid. I could never see them. I did not want to go forward or backward but sure didn't want to stay there! I think in both cases I retreated backwards figuring I'd already passed that way once and he didn't bite me the first time so maybe he wouldn't on the way out.

  They sounded a lot like a box of wooden matches shaking. I know they sometimes lose their rattles when they shed or get them hung on something and they break off and the snake will shake his tail but no sound.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know that snake venom is a modified form of saliva used primarily to immobilize/kill its prey and also aids in the digestion of the prey? It is also used for defense. The nature of the prey often determines how toxic it is in the snake. For example a snake that primarily eats ground dwelling mammals like rats, squirrels and rabbits will likely have a less toxic venom than some jungle snake that mainly eats birds. The birds must be killed or immobilized almost immediately or the snake will lose the prey while ground mammals can be tracked and found after they are bitten. The snake gets on the animals trail using it forked tongue type organ to taste the air where the prey passed until it finds and eats the dead or dying prey.

 Snake venom is used in many medical applications and is very valuable for that. (It better be valuable and high paying if they expect me to be milking a king cobra!!!)

[WV Sawmiller]

   Do you know the difference between a raven and a crow? A raven is bigger, about the size of a red-tailed hawk with a wingspread of 3.5'-4' and has a bigger beak. A raven also has a bit of a point to its tail as seen when flying. A crow is smaller and about the size of a pigeon with a smaller beak. His tail looks sort of squared off when flying.

Common Raven and American Crow Identification - NatureMapping.

[Magicman]

Plus the Raven walks around saying "Nevermore".

[barbender]

Ravens have feathers that come farther down it's bill. They are a really neat bird. One unique thing about them- on a really cold northern Minnesota day, you can look up into the sky and see a lone raven flying over. At -20°F, I just think about how cold it has to be up there, and then I wonder where it's going? Where could it be traveling on such a cold day when all of the other birds are hunkered down, with their feathers fluffed up?

[WhitePineJunky]

Ravens have feathers that come farther down it's bill. They are a really neat bird. One unique thing about them- on a really cold northern Minnesota day, you can look up into the sky and see a lone raven flying over. At -20°F, I just think about how cold it has to be up there, and then I wonder where it's going? Where could it be traveling on such a cold day when all of the other birds are hunkered down, with their feathers fluffed up?

Ravens are much better than crows, have lots of different sounds they make and they're not just "caw caw caw"ing all day lol
Crows can't glide like a raven can they're quite a lot bigger than a crow, many people can't tell the difference between a raven or crow though

[Andries]

Magpies and Ravens, favorites of mine.
They stick around in the winter, can eat or hunt almost anything and are jokers with a sassy sense of humour. Watching three ravens gang up on a tethered husky is better than anything on Netflix. That dog won't know that its favourite meat bone is gone until the ravens are cackling at it from fifty feet up.