jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,182
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Post by jamesp on May 25, 2017 6:56:58 GMT -5
Driving on highway is sand country and noticed sand being throw out of a tortoise hole 5 feet. No turtle tracks, no Diamondback tracks, just fresh piled sand. Gopher tortoise at work. Photo below. I have a 10 acre lot in upland(50 feet above sea level) sand territory in Pierson Florida. It is surround by fern growers(fern capital of the world). ALL the gopher turtles build on my peaceful 10 acre lot to avoid the constant farming activity. Nests on like 50 foot centers. ALL the Diamondbacks occupy the gopher holes. Watch where you walk during snake active time of the day. Diamondback central. By law, these gopher nests should be moved at great cost. Me in land biz. Will sell property and let the buyer deal with the tortoise nests. The farmers have their way of dealing with the tortoise. Pretty sure they end up in the soup pot. Or plowed over and suffocated. The farmers do like the tiny Osceola turkeys. They are efficient bug eaters. Not unusual to see a flock of turkeys in 3-4 directions right in town. Tame, in huge flocks greater the 100. Farmers welcome them into their giant shade houses. Malathion is the alternative. And lots of it. Dupont I believe, awarded the fern farmers $12,000/acre for damages due to cancer causing insecticide in a class action about 20 years ago. I was curious why I had to sign a strict environmental liability release clause when purchasing land in Pierson. Workers carrying cut ferns to be shipped by air to all over the world for flower arrangements. Interesting backlash from this biz. FAST AIRPLANES. OMG, they got some badazz airplanes. Over the years, making fast SE US air deliveries. Sailplanes were a derivative. They will pull you up in a sailplane with their souped up airplanes. $50/30 minute ride, $100 for high performance Schweitzer stunt sail plane. Must do experience.
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,471
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Post by Sabre52 on May 25, 2017 8:04:22 GMT -5
Scott: Yeah, it's been like fifty years since I took Herpatolgy and it was California centric. Never even seen a ground snake before. Gonna have to look it up. You rule on herps Scott!!!! Thanks for posting this stuff to broaden our minds.
Love the dillo pic by the way James. One of my favorite animals ever. Saw a baby the other day. Man are they cute!..Mel
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,471
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Post by Sabre52 on May 25, 2017 8:15:45 GMT -5
Scott, Looked up the Ground Snake. What a variable snake! Our local species looks nothing like that fancy colored one. I've really got to study our local snakes more as I'm trying to make a photo album of our ranch snakes. I really screwed up awhile ago. The wife called me to come look at a snake in the lawn , I looked and said, " Aww, that's just a dull colored garter snake." Was looking at my snake book later and found out I was looking at a scarce Texas Brown Snake. Never seen one to photograph since. Stupid stupid stupid!!!!!. Need some Ribbon Snake pics too but I'm finding I'm too damn old and slow to catch one. We have two types here and both are fast moving *L* Last one I saw crawled right over my feet and I couldn't quite grab him. If snakes could laugh, he would've been....Mel
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Post by coloradocliff on May 25, 2017 11:19:45 GMT -5
Yeah wouldn't want the wonderful government employees showing up at my door and telling me how to live. Probably wound't go well. Yep like everyone on here, I like all of our wild friends. Even snakes and mother in laws when I had one. grin.. HAd a nursery down in Mexico and the woman who tended it had desert tortoises. Mexicans are death on eating all their wildlife and she always had a heart and took in the desert ones. Had a pile of them, fed them well and they slept under the house in winter. No one ate her friends.
The Natives in east Peru living along tributaries to the Amazon with no electrical power and moving only by hollowed out tree kayaks and by foot had a cruel practice. Tortoise hanging live on the wall of the kitchen with a stick threaded with vine tied to the the front legs. Waiting for the oven. Those people raped the wildlife. Hike through those forests and see little wildlife. Must tip hat to the strict Florida DNA. Hike through St. John's riverine forest and see reptiles in troves. Hard working forest wily DNA officers that will prosecute wildlife offenders to the max. Do a land tortoise in Florida and expect serious prison time. Heck yes.. Serious time. Once in Mexico Had a mesican piloto who had a boat and I always had gas money.. We always cruised the Baja and one day we spotted a few deer. Rare around there because of the culture and mindset as we both know. The next morning he showed up at my house in his old rusty truck with the entire herd of deer we saw the day before, dead and piled in the truck. He was going to trade them for things. Made me so mad I never dealt with the guy again after ranting and threatening in good Spanish for half an hour. Its not about poverty or skin color..never is, it always about culture and always has been..!!
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,471
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Post by Sabre52 on May 25, 2017 17:31:25 GMT -5
When I used to work the Camarillo district in Ventura County, there was a spot along Calleguas Creek where there would be piles of Desert Tortoise remains. Always tried to catch who was dumping them but never did. Friggin barbarians slaughtering protected wildlife to eat. Figured it was some of those Central American illegals coming in to harvest crops for the farmers.
Read somewhere that as soon as there were a lot of Vietnamese brought into the SF bay area, a bunch of them started running traplines in Golden Gate Park. Definitely cut down on the squirrel population I guess....Mel
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,471
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Post by Sabre52 on May 26, 2017 15:53:50 GMT -5
Aw man, was driving home from the stables today and spotted the most humongous and beautiful red Striped Ribbon Snake crossing my neighbors drive. Over three feet long and really fat, huge for these. I jumped from my car as I've never ever got a photo of one of these and these are our most colorful Ribbon snake species. Chased it down and just got my hand on it as it went into a rock wall. Was too far back onto the tail so I had to let it go or risk injuring the beautiful snake. I almost cried. Man, to be young and quick again *sniff*. This humid rainy weather we are having really has the snakes moving around. I've rescued one Hog Nosed and seen three more various snakes in just the last week...Mel
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Post by Garage Rocker on Jul 1, 2017 8:24:14 GMT -5
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2017 9:37:45 GMT -5
They are eating all kinds of stuff your wife would approve of. Tell her I said so. Lol
Nice pics master obi wan
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Post by Garage Rocker on Jul 1, 2017 10:29:28 GMT -5
They are eating all kinds of stuff your wife would approve of. Tell her I said so. Lol Nice pics master obi wan I just don't tell her that they will be back, or others will take their place. They aren't the first ones out there, we have no shortage of them around.
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Post by coloradocliff on Jul 1, 2017 15:09:43 GMT -5
In the spring on the nursery property it's not unusual to have "snake balls" of dozens of snakes wrapped up in a frenzy of twitterpation. The water meter pit always has a pile as does a hole under a big willow tree. Useful around the nursery for mice and grasshoppers. my crew doesn't bother them and even the most squeamish of girls have gotten used to them. No fear from the population of snakes.
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Post by Garage Rocker on Jul 1, 2017 15:18:08 GMT -5
Hahaha! I just went out front and saw another snake in the flower bed. This one is bigger than the other two. Think I'll let him stay. Claim I just can't catch it.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2017 15:36:15 GMT -5
Too big....
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Post by Garage Rocker on Jul 8, 2017 10:55:58 GMT -5
Hahaha! I just went out front and saw another snake in the flower bed. This one is bigger than the other two. Think I'll let him stay. Claim I just can't catch it. Was able to get a video of the one hanging out in the flower bed this morning. Sorry for the slight blur, no auto focus and it's hard to adjust with the camera at arm's length. Memory card filled and camera shut off right before it slid off.
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Post by stephan on Jul 13, 2017 17:04:46 GMT -5
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Post by rockpickerforever on Sept 27, 2020 23:05:03 GMT -5
Decided to move this photo onto this old thread, a collection of reptile photos. (I said I would try not to threadjack.) Doesn't look like it has been used in a while. I think it was one of Mel's Sabre52 favorite threads. This is the patchnosed snake. This is the desert variety (vs. coastal). It was found and photoed near Carrizo Gorge in eastern San Diego county. We were on a rockhounding field trip.
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Post by parfive on Sept 28, 2020 0:44:43 GMT -5
Deleted member . . . Member since January 1970
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Post by rockpickerforever on Sept 28, 2020 2:49:50 GMT -5
Deleted member . . . Member since January 1970 You just now noticed that? All deleted members show that date, even though that is before RTH even started. Don't know why.
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,685
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Post by Tommy on Sept 28, 2020 19:12:28 GMT -5
Nor do I ... I'm pretty sure NRG was just a gleam in his daddy's eye in 1970...
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Post by rockpickerforever on Sept 28, 2020 20:09:11 GMT -5
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NRG
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since February 2018
Posts: 1,630
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Post by NRG on Sept 28, 2020 22:45:24 GMT -5
Nor do I ... I'm pretty sure NRG was just a gleam in his daddy's eye in 1970... I was in second grade. Lol
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