Just a couple of the less common types of wildlife I saw today.
The Gray Catbird is a solid ID. The snake is still "iffy".
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| Milk Snake |
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| Hognose Snake |
At first I thought the Hognose Snake was a Milk Snake but the pattern was much more uniform and finer/smaller pattern. He jumped out when I was looking at some blackberry bushes and I got to practice my levitation skills. Contrary to what Mr B and other experienced aviators claim, there is plenty of "lift" in hot, humid air if the flier is sufficiently motivated.
Hognose Snakes can flatten their heads to look like a pit-viper. They can also play dead and can even eject a putrid smell that makes them smell like they have been dead a long time. The snake I saw had a small head...that is something I look for. He was also shy. He went west as I went up.
The temperatures were 10 degrees lower than predicted today but the humidity was extremely high. My glasses fogged up when I walked out of the house and my tee shirts (I went through several today) quickly soaked through with sweat.
We call them Puff Adders down here. Hognoses can get a little aggressive when you aggravate them, and they have a very mild venom that doesn't affect humans, but can affect dogs and cats - not lethally though, in my experience. But they're generally good ones to have around.
ReplyDeleteGlad we don’t have hog nosed snakes in Louisiana. The pattern and build looks too much like a rattler which we have an abundance of.
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