Nature Photography (Formally Spring is in the Air)

[Newt]

Wow, nice shots Zopteryx!

Doug - I'm not sure about the watersnakes-mimicking-cottonmouths hypothesis. I think they're all just trying to be cryptic. Besides, the northerns, which are the species with the least range overlap with the cottonmouth, are the ones that look most like it. Of course, that may not mean much; coral snake mimics like scarlet kings, red milks, and scarletsnakes occur hundreds of miles north of the current range of coral snakes...

One thing that shows well in your photo that is a consistent, easy-to-see and easy-to-remember diagnostic for watersnakes is the dark striping on the lips. Cottonmouths do not have it, but virtually all non-venomous aquatic snakes in their range do. One old herper I knew called this pattern "granddaddy mouth".

[Doug Watson]

Wow, nice shots Zopteryx!

Doug - I'm not sure about the watersnakes-mimicking-cottonmouths hypothesis. I think they're all just trying to be cryptic. Besides, the northerns, which are the species with the least range overlap with the cottonmouth, are the ones that look most like it. Of course, that may not mean much; coral snake mimics like scarlet kings, red milks, and scarletsnakes occur hundreds of miles north of the current range of coral snakes...

One thing that shows well in your photo that is a consistent, easy-to-see and easy-to-remember diagnostic for watersnakes is the dark striping on the lips. Cottonmouths do not have it, but virtually all non-venomous aquatic snakes in their range do. One old herper I knew called this pattern "granddaddy mouth".

You must have seen the image before Photobucket held my images hostage. I have since deleted all my images there and deleted my account. I doubt I will try another host so my image posting days are done here. Are you on Facebook maybe we could hook up there and share shots.

My niece in Henderson, Tennessee sent me an image of what she thought was a Cottonmouth but I told her it looked like one of your subspecies of Nerodia sipedon one of which is the same as ours Nerodia sipedon sipedon. It sure looked the same as ours and from the range map I have seen she is smack dab in the middle of Western Cottonmouth territory so maybe they evolved there and moved North? Just a layman's theory. Have you also noticed how large Water Snakes and large Garter snakes when threatened will also flatten their heads out forming a more triangular head. That looks suspiciously like mimicry to me as well.

[Newt]

Photobucket is the worst. I use DeviantArt as an image host now; not what it's for, I guess, but it works. I have a Facebook account but I only check it every few months.

Henderson would have N. s. pleuralis, which is very similar to N. s. sipedon. They should have N. erythrogaster flavigaster and N. rhombifer rhombifer there as well.

Most natricines do the head-flattening thing, even little ones like Virginia. And of course hognoses are hardcore flatteners. I've even (once) seen a ringneck flatten its head. I think it might be a pretty general snake defensive behavior, like puffing up, hissing, musking, and tail-vibrating.

[Halichoeres]

Bummer to lose your nature shots, Doug 

[Doug Watson]

Bummer to lose your nature shots, Doug 

Thanks for caring.

[tyrantqueen]

I got a Cox's Orange Pippin sapling for the garden. Arguably COP is the most noble and delicious of all English apples. Unfortunately I was kinda reticent in watering it, so no apples this year

[Gwangi]

Such a shame to see so many great pictures gone. I've long had issues with Photobucket and stopped posting pictures specifically because it had become such a PITA with PB. But I still enjoyed seeing the pictures other members posted in this thread. Photobucket really did screw over a lot of people. 

[Lanthanotus]

Yes, it's not spring, rather the opposite, but here's some pics from three weeks back...

I spend two weekends in my home town in the south of Hessen (ca. 50 km south of Frankfurt/Main) because a pretty big event took place there over the year and found its glorious end somewhat. Living in a country where you cannot get lost in a forest becuase there's a signed track crisscrossing the woods every 500 metres and where more kilometers of any waterrun bigger than a creek are canalized than not, it is a very big thing when one of the protected landscapes gets an update. For 500 years the small river running next to my home town was canalized in two arms but this year three kilometeres of that were joined together and are allowed to run as a river does. Not a big deal you might think - but here that's a biggy and a hell lot of people don't like it.

Well, what I want you to show here is: Those two canals were cut off water and therefore dried out. The water now runs in the new natural river bed and so all the animals in the canals had to be saved, some might be familiar for you North Americans...

On my way to the "Weschnitzinsel", fog covers the asparagus fields....





"Birth of a rainbow"


This is the protected landscape, a lot of migrant birds use these fields for resting, especially in spring: several species of geese and ducks, pewits, cranes...


Old canal....


... new riverbed. Some plants and trees will initially be sown out and planted, but afterwards the river may develop and run as it will - at least on a length of roughly three kilometers. Small ponds for amphibians are also newly excavated.


Around 200 people joined in for the rescue mission over a total of 6 days on two weekends - was more than sufficient, but I would have expected more enthusiasm by the inhabitants of the adjoining towns. First to go where members of the local fisherman club who paralyed the (bigger) fishes with electro shocks. Afterwards came the searchers and diggers for small fishes, crawfish, mussles, frogs and insect larvae.




Orconectes limosus is the most common crayfish here, it overpowered the native species especially because it carries a disease against which itself is more or less immune, but the natives are not.


Several species of gobies and Asian mussles, next to several species of dragonfly larvae... this is what you get when you mess with nature. At least those species fill the gaps left by others.


However, several native species have also been found and some with surprisingly big individuals (when you take in account the size of the river and the water quality)....Squalius cepahlus...


.... juvenile water frogs (Rana lessonae or ridibunda) and some small Anodonta cynea...


... and the biggest surprise, a metre long eel (Anguilla anguilla), probably a pregnat female.


I am very excited to have been part of this, as I was active in the local conservation society to get just such a thing started more than 20 years ago.... and now there's money (EU) and things get running. Am curious to see how this whole area develops over the next years. Thanks for your interest.

[Halichoeres]

That's a cool project, and some great photos

[Lanthanotus]

Okay, this thread has been appropriately asleep for the past few months (though I sure would have been curious about some spring images from users in the southern hemisphere ), but now finally spring is crawling coyly back.

While the winter was comparably warm, the weather sucked big in my region, it was dark, bleak and rained for weeks with the occasional variations of snow, sleet and hail. Now, the last days have been significantly colder than the rest of winter but despite a cold wind the sunshine lured out the first reptile for this year....

Podarcis muralis at a wall in the local park.

[Halichoeres]

How appropriate the name "muralis" is

[MaastrichtianGuy]

i just came back to Miami to the Sweetwater area to visit,see and stay with my dad for almost a month and springbreak during a my second day we excercised in the canal and no its not spring yet in Florida but were almost there and here are some animals that i found along in the canal.

a flock of American White Ibises



a couple of Antillean Gallinules


a lounge of feral Brown Basilisks



a flock of feral Eurasian Collared Doves


a lounge of feral Green Iguanas with one with the rest of its tail lost










a flock of feral Muscovy Ducks with one with her young and one sitting on a tree








a feral Brown Anole

a sign to look out for alligators and snakes in the area

[Lanthanotus]

Thanks for sharing... look at all those feral reptiles... thought the feral pythons would have taken care of those

[Halichoeres]

Wow, it's really jarring to see how much of the wildlife is non-native.

[MaastrichtianGuy]

here is the canal in Sweetwater Miami

today i just went to the Bayside Marketplace and i have took some pics that i got but only on animals and one plant in there

a Banyan from India


a few feral Rock Doves including one with a piebald coloration



a bird trainer Guan with his Red and Green Macaw, Blue and Yellow Macaw, Salmon Crested Cockatoo and an Eleonora cockatoo



a male Boat Tailed Grackle

in the harbor is a Laughing Gull

a juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron or Night Heron

a school of Atlantic Tarpon

[Bowhead Whale]

Well, here, in Québec, it's not exactly like that: everything is still covered with a three-feet-thick layer of snow...

[Ravonium]

Well, here, in Québec, it's not exactly like that: everything is still covered with a three-feet-thick layer of snow...

Oddly enough, same here, sort of (Trust me, where I live, we don't even get snow that often  )



But, I do have to admit, those feral animals in MaastrichtianGuy's photos do enrich an already fairly biodiverse area (at least considering what I have where I live)

[Halichoeres]

Spring is resolutely avoiding me for now here in upstate New York:

[BlueKrono]

Looks pretty though. All the lakes are still frozen solid here, but I took the kayak out on the big Mississippi yesterday.

[Halichoeres]

Looks pretty though. All the lakes are still frozen solid here, but I took the kayak out on the big Mississippi yesterday.

It is pretty, for sure! Get any pics of the Mississip?