Critters

From the butterfly exhibit at Tucson Botanical Gardens

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A picture of a poor picture (disposable camera). A desert tortoise in joshua tree national park. I spent winters of 01-04 (nov-april) in josh climbing and saw a total of 2 or 3 desert tortoises.View attachment 884937

I had the chance to go to Joshua Tree in 2014 with a group of friends of mine, but I voted against it because I didn't want to deal with camping/surviving 110F heat in JULY! lol :confused: Just silly. Eventually we all came to the agreement that Kings Canyon was a much better choice for that time of year. lol It was a lovely 95F instead. :)
 
BTW, here's a picture of a cute little female Phidippus insignarius jumping spider I found in Colorado in 2015. Soon after the first picture, my friend placed it in my hand, it took a dump on me, and then proceeded to take a lemming dive off my hand into the semi-arid scrub brush I was standing in. lol

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GR8 choice. Kings Canyon is sweeeet, you just have to hike a lot further to get to the climbs(many of which were put up by my friend Herb Laeger who has tons of first ascents everywhere).

Well, I'm not much of a climber, but we did some great hikes while we were there. I'd go back again for sure. :)
 
This cat is new to us as a visitor. Last time I saw it, it was accompanied by another more timid puss. My cat, Max was sleeping on the bed this morning as I took this photo or he'd have been out like a shot. I love when other cats visit. If only ours was more friendly. Sometimes he is but he's so unpredictable.
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Gizmo the Siberian Husky in his "natural habitat" - one of the only pieces of relatively untouched nature in or around Copenhagen (which will soon be turned into a building site for even more flats only the rich can afford).





 
Some wildlife passing our back door yesterday... think these were gopher snakes, ballpark around 3' overall.

These two pics were from snake #1, who was camped out on the patio deck right outside our sliding door. Wife spotted it, freaked out (as usual) and I ran out to get pictures (naturally) since it was clearly not a poisonous snake.

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I gave it a very light nudge and it headed off in that same direction in no particular hurry. Pretty mellow critter actually, didn't posture or pay any attention to me being there.

About 45 minutes later, snake #2 shows up in pretty much the same place. This one was almost certainly following the scent trail of snake #1 as it was testing with its tongue constantly and never stopped moving. I got a couple of nice video clips of this one cruising along the patio as it followed the same path the first one had taken as it exited the patio. I tracked this one all the way over to our fence line where it slipped under the fence into our neighbor's back yard. Snake #2 was not quite identical to snake #2, but clearly the same species - might have been a few inches shorter and not quite as thick in the heavier part of the body. I am guessing this was a male/female pair, possibly the second one was the male following the female and hoping for some early springtime action (or vice-versa... who am I to assume?).

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Funny part was while I was taking pictures I could hear the neighbors had some social thing going on in the back, about ten minutes after the 2nd snake went under the fence we heard "Holy crap" so my guess is they spotted at least one of them too.


John
 
Some wildlife passing our back door yesterday... think these were gopher snakes, ballpark around 3' overall.

These two pics were from snake #1, who was camped out on the patio deck right outside our sliding door. Wife spotted it, freaked out (as usual) and I ran out to get pictures (naturally) since it was clearly not a poisonous snake.

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I gave it a very light nudge and it headed off in that same direction in no particular hurry. Pretty mellow critter actually, didn't posture or pay any attention to me being there.

About 45 minutes later, snake #2 shows up in pretty much the same place. This one was almost certainly following the scent trail of snake #1 as it was testing with its tongue constantly and never stopped moving. I got a couple of nice video clips of this one cruising along the patio as it followed the same path the first one had taken as it exited the patio. I tracked this one all the way over to our fence line where it slipped under the fence into our neighbor's back yard. Snake #2 was not quite identical to snake #2, but clearly the same species - might have been a few inches shorter and not quite as thick in the heavier part of the body. I am guessing this was a male/female pair, possibly the second one was the male following the female and hoping for some early springtime action (or vice-versa... who am I to assume?).

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Funny part was while I was taking pictures I could hear the neighbors had some social thing going on in the back, about ten minutes after the 2nd snake went under the fence we heard "Holy crap" so my guess is they spotted at least one of them too.


John

I'm happy to hear you didn't kill them. Too many people do that. Snakes are cool animals too, and they are an integral part nature's balance of pest control. I'd welcome them in my garden. :)
 
We like our non-venomous snakes... esp. the couple of kingsnakes that have passed through. My wife freaks out regardless of whether they're poisonous or not though.

I have killed one rattlesnake in the past - he was a good-sized dude hanging out near the raised planting beds my wife gardens in. Won't do that any more though, since then I've just had Animal Control come and pick them up for relocation. I like the rodent control and all, but am not willing to put the family at risk and there's so much brush in parts of the yard they're impossible to spot some times - esp. the little baby snakes.

John
 
Had a small bull snake in the garage today (non-venomous rattlesnake mimic), but I didn't get a good look and wasn't sure, so called the fire department to get it. The responder reminded me to look down when entering the garage or going out onto the patio, as snakes sometimes like to rest just under the door sill. He apologized for being a little tardy - had just come from picking up a Gila monster.

Neighbors had the FD remove a baby rattler from their dog run a week ago.

Snakes don't freak me out, I just am cautious about the venomous kind.
 
Had a small bull snake in the garage today (non-venomous rattlesnake mimic), but I didn't get a good look and wasn't sure, so called the fire department to get it. The responder reminded me to look down when entering the garage or going out onto the patio, as snakes sometimes like to rest just under the door sill. He apologized for being a little tardy - had just come from picking up a Gila monster.

Neighbors had the FD remove a baby rattler from their dog run a week ago.

Snakes don't freak me out, I just am cautious about the venomous kind.
I'd be tempted to get a mongoose as a pet if we had so many snakes. We only have the adder (which is probably better at maths than me :D) but I've never seen one, thankfully.
 
We like our non-venomous snakes... esp. the couple of kingsnakes that have passed through. My wife freaks out regardless of whether they're poisonous or not though.

I have killed one rattlesnake in the past - he was a good-sized dude hanging out near the raised planting beds my wife gardens in. Won't do that any more though, since then I've just had Animal Control come and pick them up for relocation. I like the rodent control and all, but am not willing to put the family at risk and there's so much brush in parts of the yard they're impossible to spot some times - esp. the little baby snakes.

John

Cool. I'm glad to see that you call animal control to have them relocated. Kudos to you. :)

Had a small bull snake in the garage today (non-venomous rattlesnake mimic), but I didn't get a good look and wasn't sure, so called the fire department to get it. The responder reminded me to look down when entering the garage or going out onto the patio, as snakes sometimes like to rest just under the door sill. He apologized for being a little tardy - had just come from picking up a Gila monster.

Neighbors had the FD remove a baby rattler from their dog run a week ago.

Snakes don't freak me out, I just am cautious about the venomous kind.

Yeah, you have to be careful about where you step for sure. When I am hiking in rattlesnake territory, I am always careful about where I am placing my next step. They also like hiding at the base of, or underneath logs, rocks, and other large obstructions on and off-trail. It also pays to know what areas they hang out at during different times of the day too. I was hiking in California a few years ago and a friend of mine put his hand down in some brush for stability, well, as it turned out he put his hand within about 2 feet of this guy:

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That's a Southern Pacific rattlesnake. It was only a small one; maybe about 18-24 inches long, but still just as dangerous as a full grown one. However, a biologist/reptile expert friend of mine hopped right in the brush with it to snap this picture with my camera. lol :p
 
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