All About Pocket Knives

TwoFlowersLuggage wrote:

jmh58 wrote:DSC05796.JPG

Found this critter while out hiking a few weeks ago.. Was about 6in long and about an inch thick.. Never saw anything like it.. John

Is that a "Hickory Horned Devil"?
https://owlcation.com/stem/Before-a-Hic ... id-of-Them

I do believe that you nailed it!!! THANK YOU!!! Sure does look like the one in the link you posted!! KOOL!! John

Somebody is looking for lunch while the smoke rolls out of the old barn, putting the cure to that fine Robertson county dark fried tobacco.

For your perusal:

RobesonsRme.com wrote:For your perusal:

Now that's some good camouflage!

Sure is!

Made me think about all the trees I've leaned up against in my lifetime without a second thought.

Charlie

HA. That would not be a good spot to scratch your back on.

I see rat snakes climb trees but that's a first!

Ken

I didn't even see it at first even after enlarging photo ... and I really don't like snakes which started when I was a young one (probably 6 yrs old) growing up on a farm - a big black snake probably more than twice my height at the time in length came out of the leaves one day - raised its head and gave me one big open mouth "hiss" - that sent me scurrying so fast I think there was nothing but dust coming off my heels all the way to the house ...

I didn't see it on my cell phone, but once I pulled out the laptop and enlarged the picture...
What kind of snake is it?

Never mind.
Found this with Google "Rat Snake"

I think the snake hiding in the tree bark is a Copperhead. It definitely has the head of a pit viper/venomous snake.

And that's how the photo was labeled on FB from where I copied it.

I guess they have some color variation.

Charlie

Here's some comparisons to chew on. I'm voting for Rat Snake.

[quote="RobesonsRme.com"]I think the snake hiding in the tree bark is a Copperhead. It definitely has the head of a pit viper/venomous snake
........I agree, Charlie, definitely looks like a copperhead!!........ ................

..........well, after that last batch of photo's, maybe not???................ ........................

I'm with Lee - poisonous or not, I won't get near snakes. I also had a scarring event in my childhood. I was out in my Dad's big shop/tractor barn riding my tricycle when I was probably 6 or 7 years old. I had a little race track that went out one door onto the dirt, then back in another door onto the concrete shop floor. I had gone round & round dozens of times, when I suddenly noticed a huge (to my young self) snake headed across the concrete near the edge of my track. I ran screaming for my Dad who came back with a shovel to dispatch the snake. Of course, now I have no doubt it was a harmless gopher snake - but back then, I was absolutely POSITIVE it was the boa constrictor "Khan" from the Disney movie "Jungle Book", and he was coming to eat me!!

Here in Michigan we have the Massasauga rattle snake. Would rather see one with a long camera lens.

jerryd6818 wrote:Here's some comparisons to chew on. I'm voting for Rat Snake.

As someone here recently posted . . . it's a rattle-headed coppertail !

Seriously though, I believe the "tree snake" is a juvenile copperhead.
Blow up jerryd's crop shot and you can see just a hint of the yellow tail.

Here's the long and the short of it. It's a snake. Kill it!!

Here's some stuff I did not know. That said, I don't see myself getting close enough to check underneath it.

Tonight's moon.

I found this old hen perched on a stone block out back.

When that hen lays an egg, it's time to stop drinkin' for the night...

Actually, that is an edited version of the full sized picture. There are multiple juvenile copperheads in this picture. I forget exactly where in Texas this was supposed to be, but the tree is a very large White Oak (Quercus alba).

How many can YOU find? Most find 4 but there are few folks who swear they see 5.

zzyzzogeton wrote:Actually, that is an edited version of the full sized picture. There are multiple juvenile copperheads in this picture. I forget exactly where in Texas this was supposed to be, but the tree is a very large White Oak (Quercus alba).

What you see is not uncommon, especially in the South. Copperheads are known to congregate around the base of trees during summer months, drawn there to feed nightly on cicadas newly emerged from the ground under the trees. The cicadas emerge and find a tree to climb, where they sing and mate. The copperheads gather to feast on as many cicadas as they can catch. It's best not to be walking barefoot, or otherwise, from dusk until daylight. https://tpwmagazine.com/archive/2016/ju ... opperhead/.

But I've never seen a copperhead climb a tree before. Guess I'm too busy watching my step.

Ken

I found 4, and the 4th was a biatch to find!

I've seen moccasins, rattlers, copperheads, ratsnakes, bullsnakes and kingsnakes in trees. I have also found whipsnakes and gartersnakes occasionally in rose bushes. Never seen any other NATIVE Texas snakes in trees.

I fully expect someday to run across one of those damned Burmese pythons or rock pythons that some fools have let loose after they got too big for their apartment aquariums.