jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,553
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Post by jamesp on Jun 5, 2017 12:10:33 GMT -5
LOL, makes perfect sense. That Brown snake may be the first I have ever seen. I thought they were common. Maybe the Kings ingested them all. Saw a big King the other day. Fat almost full length by almost two diameters. Pregnant ? Digesting another snake ? Sure is good to have you expert snakers Fat full length sounds like either simply fat (they do get obese sometimes) or full of a big water snake. King snakes eyes can see small. On 2 occasions I have witnesses 2 foot king choking out 30 inch water snake. Both times the King does 3-4 wraps behind the water's head, both times the water snake rolled the whole mess in the water and the king let go. Had the fight stayed on land it is certain the water snake would have choked. But I would not think 2 foot king could swallow a fat 30 inch water snake. Must have out weighed the king 4 to 1.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,487
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Post by Sabre52 on Jun 5, 2017 14:30:18 GMT -5
Man, you extreme southeasterners really do have the snakes. Way more here in Texas than we had at our places in Commiefornia too and I see them way more often. Have had at least 11 species right around our yard which is insane compared to even our Commiefornia ranch where we didn't even see half that many. Love the colors on that black and white..... brown snake *L*.....Mel
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,553
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Post by jamesp on Jun 22, 2017 4:31:06 GMT -5
Man, you extreme southeasterners really do have the snakes. Way more here in Texas than we had at our places in Commiefornia too and I see them way more often. Have had at least 11 species right around our yard which is insane compared to even our Commiefornia ranch where we didn't even see half that many. Love the colors on that black and white..... brown snake *L*.....Mel I once fenced a temporary shallow 3 to 4 inch deep mud hole say 30' X 60' in cheap chicken wire to grow a crop of aquatic plants next to the creek. The 2' fence was to keep rabbits out, they would mess with this plant when young. Could not wait till those plants got established so the chicken wire could be removed. The water snakes would go thru the holes in the chicken wire probably at night when most active. Get wedged in the holes and die. In 2 months time there must have been 100 water snakes meet their fate. Smelled up the whole nursery. Water snakes use small creeks as their highway. They certainly use this creek. One of my employees was a snake man. He said you could bait a hook with a baby bluegill and tie it to a root, set the fish in the creek and catch a water snake every night. 25 years of being in intimate proximity with the water snakes on this farm I have observed many variations banded/not banded and color. Given fine habitat to a banded and not banded snake is testimony to the variability achieved of a large population. Water snake is one feisty snake when captured. They are shy and present no problems. In all those years I have never encountered a moccasin at this location. If you look at the range map Atlanta is just out of their range. I have encountered them regularly within 30 miles of the farm though. Having worked on many mitigation jobs SW of Atlanta. Amazing how accurate the range map is. The farm is just at the tip of the range on the Chattahoochee river, the river crossing diagonally over north Georgia on the map.
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Post by coloradocliff on Jul 12, 2017 17:22:12 GMT -5
James: *L* Bob is an enthusiastic feller all right. Clayton tells me there is little rhyme nor reason to the agate deposits on the ranch he has too. Says sometimes it's easier just to collect road cuts. I've also found that in most cases, the quality of larger agates is not all that good. Large ones I get tend to be sugary, grainy, or porous and almost exclusively the yellow mossy material. Even the quarry rock I get to see is, as I've said before, quite variable. Last couple of years, agate has been scarce, while, when I first started hunting the rock piles, I could pick out a five gallon bucket full of good agates off the top of the pile without even digging around in it. To me, it seems as they've gotten down deeper in the quarry the agate has thinned out. Wood too. Used to find way more palm. Just very hard to figure. Can't wait to see what you find in the oversized cobble pile. If you find an agate there, it should be a whopper!......mel Mel, Needed to bump this older thread too. Could the reason for the agate and palm getting more scarce is that other people are picking it before you get to it or it gets to you? Maybe a commercial group have a deal with the quarry owners in Eagle Pass. Just guessing.
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