CapnCrunch
07-13-06, 00:27
I've told you guys I liked snakes ;)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/capcocrunchopoint/IMG_1769.jpg
This is a Eastern Hognose Snake (Heterodon platirhinos, called a "Spreading Adder" in most parts of Texas, although it's of the colubrid family and not a viper) which decided to come up to my front door earlier today. It looks huge in the photo, but it was only about 2 ft long at most.
This snake has several unique defense mechanisms. Being a rear-fanged venemous snake that has a venom that's not particularly toxic to would-be predators, it resorts to unconventional means to ward off attacks. The first being that it can flatten out its body, similar to a cobra, to make itself appear much larger than it actually is. The second being that it can expel large amounts of air which makes a pretty darn loud hiss. The third... Well, it plays dead. Yeah, it's a scary snake. They hardly ever strike at people, much less actually bit them, and when you scare it, the poor thing plays dead.
Anyhow, we had heard the dogs barking, and my wife decided to peek out the door to make sure they weren't in any danger. Well, I, being a certified genius, decided to go outside, stand on the doorstep, and wonder what the hell that loud hissing noise was. The wife instructed me to come back in the house, which I did. She then informed me there was a black snake coiled up behind the dogs food bowl.
I'm going to preempt the joke, and get it outta the way. "If it was a snake, it woulda bit you." Now that that's out of the way...
After deciding that he wasn't a Cottonmouth, I figured that the best thing to do would be to retrieve my big Rubbermaid (it's actually a Sterilite, I'm cheap) container that I keep around just for the purpose of catching snakes. Now, I'm no Austin Stevens, but I'm no idiot when it comes to snakes... I've got a proprietary procedure that I use to get snakes in the container, and seal it until I can relocate them. Needless to say, turning the container on its side and pushing him in with the lid worked great, as usual.
At this point I had a pretty decent idea of what he was, and decided to take a few (hundred) pictures. Sorry, but no ultra-macro photography. Like I said, I'm no Austin Stevens. My dinky Powershot S2-IS doesn't like to focus when zooming on macro shots, so I already had to get pretty close to him to get the shots that I did get.
After that was all said and done, I topped the container off, carried it across the road, and set him free into the wilderness.
So yeah, I woke up too late to do anything productive, caught a snake, took some pictures, and set him free about 300 yards from my house. Again, I'm not very smart. Anyhow, the whole idea was to get him far enough away from the dogs (one can get under my fence) that he could escape near enough to the creek to find some nice crunchy amphibians to feast upon.
It's a good day to be a snake.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v307/capcocrunchopoint/IMG_1769.jpg
This is a Eastern Hognose Snake (Heterodon platirhinos, called a "Spreading Adder" in most parts of Texas, although it's of the colubrid family and not a viper) which decided to come up to my front door earlier today. It looks huge in the photo, but it was only about 2 ft long at most.
This snake has several unique defense mechanisms. Being a rear-fanged venemous snake that has a venom that's not particularly toxic to would-be predators, it resorts to unconventional means to ward off attacks. The first being that it can flatten out its body, similar to a cobra, to make itself appear much larger than it actually is. The second being that it can expel large amounts of air which makes a pretty darn loud hiss. The third... Well, it plays dead. Yeah, it's a scary snake. They hardly ever strike at people, much less actually bit them, and when you scare it, the poor thing plays dead.
Anyhow, we had heard the dogs barking, and my wife decided to peek out the door to make sure they weren't in any danger. Well, I, being a certified genius, decided to go outside, stand on the doorstep, and wonder what the hell that loud hissing noise was. The wife instructed me to come back in the house, which I did. She then informed me there was a black snake coiled up behind the dogs food bowl.
I'm going to preempt the joke, and get it outta the way. "If it was a snake, it woulda bit you." Now that that's out of the way...
After deciding that he wasn't a Cottonmouth, I figured that the best thing to do would be to retrieve my big Rubbermaid (it's actually a Sterilite, I'm cheap) container that I keep around just for the purpose of catching snakes. Now, I'm no Austin Stevens, but I'm no idiot when it comes to snakes... I've got a proprietary procedure that I use to get snakes in the container, and seal it until I can relocate them. Needless to say, turning the container on its side and pushing him in with the lid worked great, as usual.
At this point I had a pretty decent idea of what he was, and decided to take a few (hundred) pictures. Sorry, but no ultra-macro photography. Like I said, I'm no Austin Stevens. My dinky Powershot S2-IS doesn't like to focus when zooming on macro shots, so I already had to get pretty close to him to get the shots that I did get.
After that was all said and done, I topped the container off, carried it across the road, and set him free into the wilderness.
So yeah, I woke up too late to do anything productive, caught a snake, took some pictures, and set him free about 300 yards from my house. Again, I'm not very smart. Anyhow, the whole idea was to get him far enough away from the dogs (one can get under my fence) that he could escape near enough to the creek to find some nice crunchy amphibians to feast upon.
It's a good day to be a snake.