Eeeeeeeeeeek!

Was puttering around the back fields and happy to see lots of bunnies and turtles then came upon this bugger on one of the senderos. I think it had recently dined on rabbit because the stomach had a big bulge.

~ Cat

Another photo.

~ Cat

Ewwww. shudder. That's not a sight for the faint of heart. Are you sure he didn't swallow an alligator?

But not likely to be very dangerous if it has a full belly?

With rattlesnakes, better never to assume it won't strike on the better-safe-than-sorry (and in the ER) principle, IMHO.

This bugger was crossing the road when I came up on it and it quickly raised up in a strike pose rattling out a warning. Full belly or not - it was not happy to see me.

Needless to say, I had to keep it focused on me while I telephone my brother to bring the snake catcher and a bag from from the ranch house and meet me out in the back field where I was.

He does taxidermy as a hobby until he can retire and take it up full time. It will stay in the deep freeze for a couple of weeks until my brother decides what he wants to do with it - we'll find out at that time what it had for dinner.

I walk those back fields all the time and do not want to run into any of those snakes. We've had numerous folks get bit and it's not a pretty sight. I know we should just give them wide berth but that's not going to happen on our land!

We have several huge black snakes that roam the back fields which help keep the rattler population down but still...those rattlers can blend in with the dried grass too well for comfort.

~ Cat

Have you ever eaten some rattlesnake meat, Cat? I always wondered how it tasted.

It tastes like you'd think an icky snake would taste! Don't believe the stories about it tastes like chicken because it doesn't. It has a wangy game taste...ugh! Don't care how you prepare it, corn meal coated, fried, baked, BBQ it etc. A snake is a snake and no amount of spices are going to change that!!! Don't know if I had a pre-conceived notion that I wouldn't like it but I've tasted about every thing the land has to offer...and snake was one of the worst.

The freezer is usually stocked with wild game...whether it be deer, feral hog, quails etc. Nobody particularly cares for snake though...but I have a cousin that likes it so whenever we kill one we'll skin it and toss the meat into the freezer for him.

I keep thinking of that Andrew Zimmerman show - I remember him eating a pickled snake from China or somewhere like that. At least here you have the seasoned cornmeal or BBQ sauce to mask the icky flavor...I'd never be able to smell and even less eat a pickled snake! UGH! UGH!

~ Cat

hi yall,
call me crazy but
that is a beautiful snake, i love and catch rattlesnakes all the time, but that one tops mine i think, the largest i caught was 7 ft. we did kill and eat him, and if fried it up, was pretty good if i do say so, my boys couldnt get enough. i would rather release them where they will scare no one, they have their benefits. i was bitten by a pygmy rattlesnake, that was no fun but oh well. anyways nice picture.

Eeek!! Can't blame you for not wanting that bad boy around! I think a lot of people don't realize what happens when you get bit by rattlers. And I wouldn't want to eat him either...

They get pretty big out here since we have several hundred acres of native brushland and all the neighboring areas are also brushland. We don't go out and hunt for them but if we see them when we are out and about well...you know what happens.

I took this photo in November 2008 when I was puttering around on the golfcart in the back land looking to photograph butterflies. I'd caught a glimpse of the black snake when I drove by but when I reversed to get a photo the beeping of the golf cart backing up or the ground vibrations I caused must have scared it because it started to crawl away before I could get a full body photo. As I was taking photographs I realized there was a rattlesnake in the photo too! The black snake must have been about to eat the rattlesnake.

Man oh man, I would have had some great photos if I'd only come up on the scene a few minutes later and been much quieter!!! I waited for about ten minutes but it didn't return and the rattler started to move away as well. It was a huge rattler and I didn't want to come across that one again so needless to say, I killed it.

~ Cat


This message was edited May 17, 2009 4:45 PM

This posting shows the full length of the rattler. It measured 7'2" - we had some roofers putting on a metal roof on the ranch house and when I drove up and tossed it by the house - they all freaked! Several climbed down and they got out their cell phones and started taking photos and then one pulled out a measuring tape. A few stayed up on the roof and wouldn't come down until I'd taken the snake away :o)

~ Cat

looks like the black snake was bigger than the rattler, was it a blue indigo, do you get them there i caught one that was about 8 ft blue indigo that is, very strong snake. i love those snakes, wish i could get some good pics of them never have my camera when i need it. i just caught a 5 ft yellow rat snake my son wants to keep it i told him we would feed it one rat then it goes back to the wild. i came across this cottonmouth moccasin he was pretty large

Yowie! That's a big snake too! Are cottonmouths and water moccasins the same thing? We don't get those at the ranch but I do recall seeing water moccasins basking along the banks of the Mississippi River when I lived in Memphis. Scary!!!

The indigos out here are huge snakes. I see one or two when I'm usually puttering around the back land on the golfcart. I picked up a small two footer I saw in the grass a while back because I wanted to take a photo of it on the dirt road...big mistake! I'd forgotten how awful they smell. UGH!!!

Here's one that was a little over 8 foot. Only part of it can be seen in this photo - I was driving the golfcart and it wouldn't move out of the way. It got mad and reared up and hissed at me. It flattened out it's neck and looked like a cobra! Lawwwwwwwwdy! That scared the criminy out of me and I backed up and high tailed it out of there!...but not after I got a photo of it lifting it's body in front of the golf cart :o)

~ Cat

I would have soiled my britches...........scared to death of snakes,they give me the Heebeegeebee's....

i believe they are 1 in the same, but they do get awful big here, we have the water bandit that looks identical when young, and if you dont know the diff you kill a perfectly good snake. the only snake i would kill is the moccasin because i dont care where you read or hear, they do chase you and will not give up i have had it happen a number of times. my son killed one with a faily large belly he wanted to know what he ate so he cut it open and about 100 babies live came out i had to kill a bunch of them bad boys
that is a beautiful indigo, we hardly see them my son got lucky and caught one the other day. 1st one i have seen in years

OMG!!! I'd surely freak if a hundred writhing snakes were on the loose!!! More so if they are the kind that chase you!

Rattlers will stand their ground and most likely slither off if you back away but we've had a few over the years that come right at you. I recall one year we were walking through the back fields and we came across a drag (snake track). The ranch dog started growling, scratching and biting the ground so we figured it was close by to have left such a fresh scent. We heard it before we saw it - it was on the other side of a nearby shrub and coming right back at us. That was scary.

My brother would have a field day if that rattler we dropped into the deep freeze had a bunch of little ones inside it...but alas, that bulge is too rectangular looking.

Yes, the indigos are good looking snakes - so sleek and shiny black. They frequent the pond - most likely in search of frogs and other small critters so we see them several times a month out there.

~ Cat

OMG!!!!!! You guys are freaking me out.....LOL! I never wabt to see any snake in the wild that big!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YIKES!

But they are very cool....

We have rattlers and water moccasins (cotton mouths) here but not the Indigo. I've run up on my fair share of both while out in the woods and would prefer a rattler to a cotton mouth any day! I have had one rattler come after me (thank goodness I was on my four-wheeler and shot it before it got all the way up on it) but EVERY cotton mouth I've ever come across has come after me. They are really mean critters and I shoot every one I run into! Thankfully, the average rattler I run into is only 5 to 6 feet long. I've run into a couple that were 7-foot or more but couldn't shoot either since all I had with me was my bow. Don't care to argue with a snake that big with anything but a gun :-}

A friend of mine was bitten by a cotton mouth while hunting. He was walking through marsh (swampy wetlands) when it got him. Luckily, he had a friend w/him at the time. The friend raced him to the nearest hospital where he was admitted and treated w/anti-venom. Still, the leg was swollen to about 2x its normal size and turned gray for a while. He walked on crutches for a while after that but is fine today. Not an experience I would want for myself though.

no i know the experience as i said above i was bitten by a pygmy, and the worse part was when i got to the paramedics they threw me in the ambulance and no hospital had anti venom, i got lucky my hand swelled 2x up to my elbow but my blood clotted and did not need it. i was real lucky. my finger was blackish they thought i would lose it but didnt i was real lucky guess i wont play with them anymore.

An experience like that would cure me of playing with snakes too! You truly were blessed to not have more serious damage than you did with your hand. Pygmies are bad little dudes!

yes they are and i totally respect them and leave them alone, i watch from a distance.

Feel bad for ya'll that have gotten bit. I've only seen the aftermath out here but am real glad I wasn't on the fang end of those bites!

The big ones really put a scare into me too but since I putter around the back pastures with a gun and normally wear snake guards and stay in the ride - I feel safe enough. However, must say after seeing some of those snakes rear up am quite positive they could easily reach over into the golfcart for a bite!!!

~ Cat

The experts say at a minimum a snake can strike a distance equal to 1/2 its body length. Rattle snakes are said to be able to strike well beyond that distance. Even using the minimum number, your 7 footer should have been able to reach 3.5ft.

I keep seeing a Copper Head in my backyard, often right at the back door of all places. I shot a snake or two when I lived in a rural area where that was an option, but I live in city limits now. It is illegal to discharge a firearm here not to mention quite dangerous considering the proximity of other houses and people. I'm not willing to get close enough [on purpose that is] to go after him with a hoe or similar instrument, so we continue to co-exist nervously.

I usually see him about once a year but find myself tip toeing nervously about the garden the rest of the year just the same.

scutler,
You may already know this but snakes don't see all that good. If it's laying in wait at the foot of your steps, keep a shovel handy--one good blow right behind it's head will do it in. Copperheads are bad dudes too and I'd be figuring out how to get rid of it. Hubby and I have killed many snakes with just a shovel. In fact, we've been out bow hunting (illegal to carry a gun during bow season) and come up on snakes. A blow right behind the head with a good strong (and long) stick will kill them too. It's nerve wracking to get that close to one but I'd rather get close enough to kill it while I know where it is than to step somewhere where I can't see it and get bit!

NatureLover1950,

Thanks for the info. I may just take you up on the idea to put a shovel by the back door. I only have a short one though. Maybe I should buy a longer handled one. I don't know if I'll have the courage to use it, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to have it handy just in case. I know what you mean about the risk of stumbling upon the snake when I don't see it vs the dangers of trying to kill it. I've wrestled with this conundrum for a while now but always chicken out. I do step very carefully around the property being careful to stay in the clear, open areas; carrying a flashlight at night; and always checking all around the patio carefully before stepping out the door - but all that extra caution does tend to make the backyard cottage garden somewhat stressful.

I know someone who will come and get the snake. I'm supposed to call his cell when I see it, but as I mentioned I only tend to see the thing about 1x per year, and when I do I'm always too busy panicking and getting out of his way to even think about calling anyone. By the time I calm down enough to think about such things the snake is long gone.

I do think about how to get rid of him. I've taken steps to eliminate the food sources that brought him here in the 1st place. The last few years I've been putting moth balls out in summer. I usually do that after I see him the 1st time - which, incidentally, always seems to occur on Memorial Day weekend. (yikes!) I don't know for sure if the moth balls are the reason, but after that I never see him again until the following year.

Absolutely gorgeous pictures of a Rattle Snake.. yeah they aren't cute and cuddly but it is a very nice healthy looking snake. Congraduations on the chance to photo such a beauty :)

I used to have a mated pair of Corn Snakes. They were actually at their most jumpy and likely to strike after just being fed. Unless absolutely stuffed. But Most snakes are in an excitement mode after feeding and will strike easily. JMHO

We have Corn snakes, rattlers (Eastern Diamondback and Pygmy) , Indigos (awesome snakes to have around your property and they are a protected species so please do not kill one if you see it), Cotton-mouths (Water Moccasins and yes they are both the same snake and very aggressive), Coral snakes, King Snakes, and many other varieties here in FL. They are all beautiful in their own way, but some you definitely do not want to "cross" for obvious reasons.

EEEKKKK first, fascination second :o) I never thought I'd want to try eating snake, so now I won't !

Blondhavingfun, wow, good picture!

Synda, thanks for the puddies, I was getting the hebejebies myself!

This was a good thread! I felt on the edge of my seat thru the whole thing. Needless to say I'm glad I don't live where you live LOL! But the photos were really really good!

actually rattlesnake is supposedly very good when cooked right. I can say that Gator tail is good as are frog legs. From what I've heard Rattlesnake is more of a fish style of meat in that it's flaky and falls off the bones when cooked right.

Guess snake is an acquired taste or for those who want to say they've eaten it. Rattlesnake round-ups are a big thing out here so it's offered up in a variety of culinary ways.

Been there, done that! Snake is snake - no matter how you cook it :o) I can smell and taste the gameyness of it. Definitely not the other white meat I'll put on the menu :o)

Then again, don't put too much stock in my taste buds - I don't like frog legs, gator, shark or shrimp either.

~ Cat

Fascinating thread and thanks for all the superb photos!
Have I missed it? Did we find out what the bulge in your snake used to be?

Yes, it was a rabbit.

~ Cat

Thanks Cat :)