Hmmm, I have an abandoned golf course as an extension to my front yard. I wander out at night camera on tripod over my shoulder in my Birkenstocks to photograph lightning. Sometime I accidently setup right over a fire ant mound. I hate fire ants. I react to the bites with blisters two days later.
Set up at sunset one evening just as the sun was setting behind a thunderstorm. Looked down and a water moccasin was slithering toward me. I did not have anything resembling a square nosed shovel so I moved. First time for everything. This was the most recent of many run ins I have had with cotton mouths. This was the first one that got away.
While trying do some work on pond bathymetry, the crew (city slickers from Atlanta) got curious about the black 2 ft diameter squirming mass on a stump in a pond. They approached until they realized it was a black wasp nest. They were smart enough not to throw rocks at it. Though they were in the middle of a pond. They had to clear the brush from the dam of said pond and found a white hornets nest. I have found both in the small swampy area between the house and the river. I avoid them.
I have been here over 10 years now but have yet to see a gator despite my neighbor finding one in her yard last year.....as well as a nest of timber rattlers in her shed. I have heard stories about small annoying dogs and house cats going missing.
And then there was the 5 ft long timber rattler my dogs found in the tall grass of the golf course. I could hear the rattler from 30 ft away....it suffered a tragic death by square nosed shovel. I have the rattle. That snake is the reason I now mow that part of the golf course in front of my house.
This place has numerous critters that appear in my yard, alligator turtles, some rare terrapin, great horned owls, coyotes, wild hogs, deer, wild turkey, and one particular red tailed hawk that in the last year has decimated the mockingbird and blue jay population.
I try to photograph each and every critter I come across but some are more illusive than others.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Milonian
Bookmarks