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Snake hunt

  • Thread starter Ozzy
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Ozzy

SirKristoff is a poopiehead
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We've had heavy rain here for four days. Tropical storm Tammy just won't go away. With all the rain I knew I would be able to find some nice snakes on the road in the Green Swamp.
I was really hoping to find a mud or rainbow snake. So about nine o'clock last night I headed out. It wasn't long before I came up on my first snake. I pulled over, jumped out, it was a small cottonmouth. I picked it up and took it to in front of my van. I left my camera in the van so I had to leave him for second to get the camera. When I came back I saw him slither under the van. I knew he had to come out so I waited. Sure enough it wasn't long before he came crawling out of the behind the van. I grabbed him and started taking pics. This was the first cottonmouth that I have ever handled, and I'm still not very confident when it comes to poisonous snakes, so I was a little nervous.

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He was very well behaved. Even though I was bugging crap out of him, he never even struck at me. And he only showed me his white mouth once. I wish I could have gotten a pic of that. But I didn't. I took him to the ditch beside the road and let him swim away.

Somehow when I was trying to pose this snake, which he didn't want to cooperate with, I somehow took a pic of my torn jeans. LOL, I guess that shows how nervous I was.

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Unfortunately that was the last live snake I found for awhile.

I drove for about another mile and I came up on this banded water snake.

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Next snake was this brown water snake.

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Now the next snake is the one that cost me so much trouble and money. I saw it laying on the road and I pulled over, there wasn't much room between the road and the rain swollen ditch so I parked about a foot off the road. I got out and got the snake. It's a red belly watersnake.

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I then heard sounds coming from the ditches and I believe that the sounds were small gators mixed with some frogs. I put my camera on movie mode and recorded the sounds.

I got back in the van and started to leave. I tried to go forward but the van would only go slowly sideways toward the ditch. The more I tried to get out the closer to the ditch I got.

Now remember I'm miles into the swamp and there are no houses, lights or anything at all but the rising ditch and millions of critters.

I know some guys with trucks that could have pulled me out, but a couple of weeks ago I damaged my phone at work, and the display is cracked and does not work. So I can't retrieve any numbers that I have stored in it. So I sat there trying to think of what I was going to do. I finally decided call somebody and see if they could give me numbers of a tow truck company. As I was about to make the call a guy stopped and asked if he could help. I asked him if he had a chain and he said no. He then asked if we could just push it out. I knew that there was no way that would have worked and so I told him thanks but I didn't think it would work. So he left and I made the call.

I got a long list of tow truck numbers and started calling. I called three numbers and all three told me that they couldn't come to pull me out.

Then a big dually pulled up and asked if they could help me. We tried to pull the van out with their truck but we kept breaking the strap. We gave up on that. I thanked them and tried to offer them money but they wouldn't take it. I also laid in a fire ant hill and when I got back in the van I looked down and saw my legs were swarming with fire ants. I jumped out of the van and beat my legs until they were mostly off. I then sprayed myself down with off. I learned that off does nothing to fire ants. During the time I was there got into that same fire ant nest 3 times.

A few other people stopped to see if they could help, but couldn't.

I kept calling tow trunk companies and out of about 15 only one agreed to help me out. But he wanted $100 plus $35 for fuel. I still had a few numbers to call and asked him if, I called him later would he still be able to come pull me out and he said sure. So I called the rest of the tow truck companies and none would help me.

Then a saw a big truck stopping. I got out and it was a truck that goes around to farms and picks up dead farm animals. And it really stunk. I climbed up the side of the truck to talk to the guy inside and he said he'd help me out. He had a chain but it was bolted to the top of the truck. I told him I had tool in my van and we could take it off. So I got my tools out and we started to take it off, but we were having some troubles getting it off. He then said he there was a farm up the road and he would go get a chain there.

He left and I thought he probably just told me that and he was long gone. So I called the one tow truck that said he'd come help me. I explained to him that this guy was suppose to come back with a chain and if he did, I would call him to let him know and then I would pay him for his gas.

Well I sat there waiting for one of them to show up. By this time I had been there for about 2 1/2 hours. About 20 mins later the guy in the stanky dead animal truck showed back up. He handed me a chain and I hooked it to my van and he pulled me out. After taking the chains off, I thanked him and tried to give him money but he refused it. I kept insisting and he finally took it. I gave him every dollar I had in my wallet which was about $30.

I then called the tow truck guy, and he told me he was almost there. We arranged a meeting place so I could pay him. He seemed to be they type that likes to talk and we talked on the phone for about ten minutes while I was driving to the meeting spot.While I was still on the phone with him, I saw another snake on the road, alive. I passed it but then I decided I couldn't just leave it on the road. So I turned around and and got it off the road. It was another banded water snake. I didn't take any pics, because I was still on the phone with the tow truck driver the whole time. And he didn't he know I was moving a snake while I was on the phone with him. LOL
I met up with him and I gave him my credit card and he did the paper work while we talked and it turns out he has 50 acres of land and he told me that he had a lot of snakes around his property. He invited me to go and look for some. He also wants me to remove some too. I also asked him if he had any wet areas of land. He told me he did and that he has found Vft's on his land. So I am suppose to cal him and go check out his land.

If I made any ID mistakes, I'm sure they will be pointed out. I also used the word poisonous just for you Alphawolf.
After how bad last night was, I guess it was worth all the trouble and money I spent.
 
You should definitely go into the literature industry. That was some story. Exciting though.

Zac
 
Can you photograph the dead snakes some way to make them look less dead?
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Like...not show the squashed spots?
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You know...you ought to save this story about the van getting stuck and waiting hours to get towed out because this seems to happen to you...A LOT. You could save yourself a lot of typing.
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