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Sometimes it happens that way

  • Thread starter Ozzy
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Ozzy

SirKristoff is a poopiehead
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I was asked to go to a guys house and remove a 4 ft black snake. From the descption I believe the snake was a black racer. After searching for over an hour and tearing his yard up, we gave up.
On the way home about a 1/4 mile from my house, I passed right by a snake on the road. I barely saw it because it was just getting dark. I hit the brakes spun around and since I had all my snake catching gear right there I scooped him up in a box. Put the top on and put him in the van. I could tell by his markings that he was 100% a cotton mouth. Even though he didn't curl up and display the white mouth, I had no doubt.

I got home took the box off and I expected the cotton mouth display, but he was just sitting in there. I looked close and even though it was dark, I could see that it wasn't a cottonmouth, it was a banded watersnake. I had just took a quick look at it's body and assumed it was a cottonmouth.

While I was playing with him, he decided to take a bite, He swung his head around, grabbed my finger. In that split second I felt his teeth against my skin. For some reason, he didn't bite down, he just let me go without biting me. I have never heard of any snake doing that.

Here some of the pics. Sorry that some of them are a little blurry, but it's hard to take a pics while trying to avoid a snakebite at night.

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I let him go behind my house. There is a nice deep ditch that he can live in back there.

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See if you can find the snake in this pic.

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Look closer.



















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It's funny that I went to rescue a snake, but couldn't find it, then I ended up driving right up on and then rescuing a snake less that a mile from my house. Sometimes it happens that way.
 
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That's a beautiful snake :). Yes, it is ironic. He should enjoy his new home. I really enjoyed reading this!

Thanks!

~NeciFiX
 
That's cool, but I was expecting the story to take a different path, in the direction of @#$%, the box is empty and a water mocassin is loose somewhere in my van.
 
That's cool, but I was expecting the story to take a different path, in the direction of @#$%, the box is empty and a water mocassin is loose somewhere in my van.

I thought the exact same thing!:-))
 
That's a beautiful snake. I wonder why he didn't bite you. Are they poisonous?
 
Hey Ozzy,

I have had that happen. And it was with a banded as it turns out. My corn has also been knonw to do that every now and then, though I am of the opinon that on those occasions he is just trying to lull me into complacency because the next time he hits me he goes for blood
 
For some reason, he didn't bite down, he just let me go without biting me.

You must have tasted like Spam and not chicken...so he let go. :-)) At least you know now that "tasty morsel" doesn't apply to you. lol


BTW...Niki I just saw your "great googly moogly"....my old Algebra teacher in high school used to say that. He would also waggle his scalp and slam a yard stick down on a desk when it was quiet while we were taking a test. Everybody would jump. lol
 
beautiful snake.

the 6th picture would be a cool avatar.
 
Cool pics, I see him hiding behind the log there looking at us in the second to last pic.....
I've found a quick way to ID a cotton mouth, when they are on land they seem to always hold their heads up at about a 30 to 45 degree angle. Idunno if I'd bank on that always holding ture:)

Here are a couple of photos I took in The Everglades
Photo1
Photo2
(These photos are too wide for this forums formatting)

I can see the patterning on the back of the snake you found is strikingly similar that of a cotton mouth...
Although I have never found one that was very aggressive, I have a feeling if your snake had been a cotton mouth and he went to the trouble to strike at you he very well may have made it count.......
 
  • #10
You must have tasted like Spam and not chicken...so he let go. :-)) At least you know now that "tasty morsel" doesn't apply to you. lol


BTW...Niki I just saw your "great googly moogly"....my old Algebra teacher in high school used to say that. He would also waggle his scalp and slam a yard stick down on a desk when it was quiet while we were taking a test. Everybody would jump. lol

LOL....that's not very nice of him :p

Nice pics Igrow!
 
  • #11
Trust me I can tell the difference between a cottonmouth and a watersnake. The reason I made this mistake was because it was dark and I saw the pattern and then I just grabbed a box and he crawled right in. I never even looked at his head. as soon as I took the lid off, I immediately saw the head and instantly knew what I had.

By the way here's a pic of a watersnake I found one time. He was so nice I let him hang around my neck while I drove around looking for more snakes.

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  • #12
That's a nice story. Here's a black garter snake that used to hang around the house. It was a real sweetheart like your water snake. Except for its spitting habit. Maybe it grew up in a tobacco chewing household.

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  • #13
Dude, where did you learn to id snakes? I'd be embarrassed if I were you. Even a person that don't know snakes knows that is an eastern hognose. They are the only snake that has a cobra like hood.

You need to get one of them snake field guides.

I know that you're red faced with embarrassment so I won't laugh at you anymore. (Out loud at least)
 
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