Snakes...

[growalot]

Where did they all go?...I usually have snakes every where...and this year I've come across just 3..... 2 garter and a brown...Now when thinking on this I realized my newt sightings are down but baby toads are every where and my frogs have had a good hatching again this year...

Now I know many of you guys don't care for snakes but they are dang important...So what have you all been seeing?

[deerpassion]

Not a one

[Lawdwaz]

Spiders and snakes..............UGGH!  I know, they are both important but I could GIF.

 

 

Can stand either one but snakes REALLY freak me out.  I just never liked them............one time when fishing Canadice back in the mid 70's my buddy Steve L. and a close encounter with either a spotted adder or python of some sort.

 

We were in our 16' Lyman boat and had rowed over to a large willow that hung over a good hole.  Seems as though one of us had made too long of a cast and got hung up.  With the price of a CP swing those days (especially when funded with a 14 year olds allowance ) we had to get it unhooked.  We  proceeded to grab it but at the same time this HIGHLY venomous snake dropped into the bow from a branch overhead.

 

Holy Kielbasa!!  We almost chopped a hole in the old wooden boat with the oars trying to kill the highly dangerous snake.  Needless to say we both survived the attack and the only thing killed was the snake.  

Soooooooooo, you can keep those missing snakes MIA and it won't break my heart...........

[Pygmy]

One of The Mermaid's flower beds had a bumper crop of garter snakes this year.

She wanted me to kill'em, but I refused.

So far I have caught six of them, including a BIG ol feller, and transplanted them.

I've been turning them loose on my ex-wife's property...<<GRIN>>....

[growalot]

You "guys" make me laugh...lord you have freaked out watching me handle the 8-12 pythons I use to take care of in the pet stores I worked in...retics...are the only snake I do not care for...I have a healthy respect for venomous snakes ...but I have never encountered a nastier snake than a female retic..non venomous...but very dangerous...had one tear open and peel back my palm like it was ripping a sheet of paper out of a book...sounded like that too...all I was trying to do was feed it a rabbit...I have detached 3 ft garters from my shin bone...they don't like being accidentally stepped on...but no harm no foul...just sqeeze both sides of jaw push foreward and up like unhooking a fish...

[Fantail]

I usually find one or two every time I roll back the tarp over the firewood.

[nybuckboy]

seen about 6 this year of various lengths... all garters

 

 

[Steuben Jerry]

Now that you mention it, I've only seen a couple of garters so far this year. Usually we see a lot more than that by mid summer.

Newts, toads, and frogs are abundant though. 

[EspressoBuzz]

I saw a five foot timber rattlesnake while biking along the Harlem Valley Rail Trail just south of Copake Falls last Wednesday (7/16) later that same day i saw a reddish colored Bobcat cross the south bound Taconic parkway from west to east just south of Snydertown Road at about 7pm. I was coming back from getting wood and it leaped across 2 lanes and both grassy shoulders in three leaps!

Edited July 22, 2014 by EspressoBuzz

[philoshop]

I'm seeing a normal number of 'em it seems. Stopped the mower the other day to let a good-sized brown make his escape toward my woodpile. Better him in there than the mice!

A really pretty corn snake has taken up residence somewhere in or around my tool shed. Again, better than the mice by a long shot. Guess I should start carrying the camera when I go to grab a chainsaw or something so I can get a photo to post.

 

I'll put a warning on the pic, though. I wouldn't want to be responsible for a cardiac incident here.

[Paula]

We have them in mounds this year, looks bigger than a soft ball. Chester looks for them every time he goes out. He gets lucky ever so often. And is thrilled, he runs in circles in the yard with his new toy. Lol I was ok with them, I would find them or skins in garage and when pulling weeds. Then someone informed me since I have them every year in same spot that I just might have hundreds. I can't have that so I ripped up the flower bed and removed my steps. Hoping that the change will get them to move on

[ants]

I usually see a lot this time of year, but so far Im zero for the season. Last summer there was a big SOB living under my shed. I would see him from time to time. One morning my wife and I were out in the yard. I was doing some yard work and she was telling me how I was doing it wrong. She finally, FINALLY, wandered away and went over by the shed. I heard her scream bloody murder. She sprinted past me, fell on the patio got right up and ran into the house leaving both of her sandals behind. When I finally got inside ( She locked the door behind her???) she said that a big snake slithered right in front of her feet. Im not crazy about snakes…but.. What a wuss...

[Doc]

As long as I can see them from a distance, and they don't take off right at my feet, I have no problem with them. I don't like them, I simply put up with them.

[pistolp71]

Growing up I always had large constrictors as pets. But poison rattlesnakes get cut in half

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[turkeyfeathers]

Only two garters so far. Going hiking in Ithaca this weekend and usually find some. Questing salamanders too. 

 

So in Disney's waterpark  (Blizzard Beach) last year there was commotion around the locker areas. People scurrying and yelling. A snake of about 2' was slithering around. Now I'm not familiar with Florida snakes so I asked a worker if it was poisonous or not. She said no so I went to pick it up to move it. She said I'm sorry sir but guests are forbidden to disturb wildlife. I said turn your head, my 11 year old daughter said I'll pick it up then,lol. They managed to pick it up with those garbage tongs and safely move it. 

[turkeyfeathers]

I saw a five foot timber rattlesnake while biking along the Harlem Valley Rail Trail just south of Copake Falls last Wednesday (7/16) later that same day i saw a reddish colored Bobcat cross the south bound Taconic parkway from west to east just south of Snydertown Road at about 7pm. I was coming back from getting wood and it leaped across 2 lanes and both grassy shoulders in three leaps!

That's a good day of critters

[HOUNDS77]

Plenty here. I do not kill them. Garters and milk snakes.

[G-Man]

garders, grass snake, redbelly racers, corn snakes, lots around this year... first grass snake i've seen in 3 years.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

I have actually seen more than usual around camp and at home.

[mmkay]

fyi

I wouldn't post about cutting timber rattler s in half........

n New York State the Timber Rattlesnake is a threatened species on the Endangered Species List. There is a fine for handling or possessing a snake without a license

[pistolp71]

True. I know better than that. But you can never assume. I never said Timber rattlesnake. I shot that in Montana a few weeks ago.

[turkeyfeathers]

Friend in TX just sent me a pic of a coral snake slithering around her deck last night. Wasn't a king snake, I googled it. Nightly tarantulas and scorpions along with a twister that did some horrific damage to her house a few weeks ago. Tis why I don't whine about shoveling snow.