For Nerys ( Rattler Catching )

[kodakira]

I appreciate this is not in the correct forum but is a continuation from a thread on here. I thought it was the best place for Nerys to see it as she had asked for the pics.

I hope nobody minds.

Hi Nerys

Posting the pics of the Rattle hustling on here if thats Ok.

Quick-ish background as to what happened,

Had been on a nature walk in a swamp area earlier in the day. While on the walk we saw allsorts of wildlife, snapping turtles, box turtles, various snakes, loads of various lizards. When seeing the snakes I immediately picked some of them up, as I knew 99.9% sure they were not poisonous, I'm not that stupid but obviously it was not something I should have been doing and especially as I was setting a bad example to my children.

Anyway I picked up a snake that I knew was not poisonous but could I hell remember the name. All the kids wanted to touch it and hold it. As you know though, we parents never practice what we preach and I would not let the children touch them, there was always that 0.1% chance. When we got the end of the walk I asked a number of rangers what this particular snake was, even showed them photo's. The reply I got was it was probably a Cottonmouth. Extremely pisonous. Not a chance in hell, and after a bit of research it was a Florida Water Snake. I was actually quite angry about rangers having no clue as to what they were actually protecting.

Now to the main event and a lesson well learnt for myself.

The children gave me grief for the rest of the day about not letting them touch the snakes.
On returning to the villa on the night, my wife got out of the car and went to open the door of the villa. As she got near the villa she shouted there was a snake on the porch carpet. At that my children ran to look at it and my eldest son shouted it was ok he would move it. Luckily I was close behind and just in the nick of time I saw it was a Rattler and shouted STOP !!!!!!!.

Here are the pics of it on the carpet





and here it is after I moved it, I hope you appreciate how difficult it is to take a picture of youself moving a poisonous snake and cr--ing youself at the same time.



The rest of the night I could not settle, talk about an adrenalin rush. WOW.

The follwing day I was back down to earth though and realised because I had been silly there could have been serious consequences for my children. Never again, at least not with the children their .

[Amalthea]

Stunning snake, though!!

I remember once when I was a kid, I was helping my Grandpa with the yard and he picked up a pile of leaves to find a pygmy rattler under it... He called me over to LOOK (no touching), while he went to get the shovel to kill it So, me being me, shooed it off and when Grandpa got back with the shovel he asked where it was and I oh so innocently said I didn't know. *lol* I was probably about 10 or 11 at the time.

[kodakira]

Hi Amalthea,

Where are you from. If your'e from the States what are you doing here ?.

I would do anything to live over there, fantastic, polite, friendly people. A lot of children who still have respect. A country where you still feel there are opportunities, beautiful countryside, warm beaches.

I'm getting miserable now .

Neil

[Emmaj]

my goodness neil its a good job you were close lol

what a gorga looking snake though how can somat so pretty be so damaging

[Amalthea]

I live in the UK, but yes, I'm American I fell in love with a Brit and here I am! *lol* It was a bit of a shock seeing how different the kids seem to be here... Dunno if I just lived a very sheltered life (which I know I did... was (and still am in some ways) very naive).

My Grandparents lived in Florida and I'd visit every summer... Got to see all sorts of critters there!! And my brother and I caught all sorts of critters, too *lol*

But I am from Washington State (the northwest corner). Tis a beautiful place, but similar weather to here (although, we got more of a summer).

[Ally]

Pop Nerys a pm with a link to this thread on there, she only needs to be away from the forum for a couple of days and the thread will disappear with the thousands of other threads!

[kodakira]

I was told they are actually more aggressive than an ordinary rattler. Don't know if that is true but didn't make me feel any better .

[Amalthea]

What type of rattler was it?

[kodakira]

A pygmy Rattler.

Came to the door because the light attracted insects, which in turn attracted frogs and lizards, which attracted the snake.

[kodakira]

Hi Amalthea,

You married a brit . Typical selfish brit, cart him back over there