Venomous Snakes of Late Summer

It's been one good summer, and to make it even better, I've had TONS of great animal sightings in its last few weeks.

Among these are a few coyotes, some bobcats, lots of bears, and even venomous snakes.

I saw this Eastern Timber Rattlesnake in the Shenandoah mountains last weekend.  These ones will put a hurtin' on you if they bite you, but from the stories I've heard from this area, they will usually give you the rattle sound as a warning before they strike.  Who knows though?  I sure haven't bothered any enough to find out.

It was good to keep a safe distance and not touch it, even though it looked pretty dead to me.

This other one is a venomous copperhead from Fairfax County.  Copperheads are some of my favorite snakes, and though their bite can easily hospitalize a human adult, I still try to get a few pictures of both live and dead ones.

I tried to highlight and focus on both the interesting pattern on the copperhead, as well as the bright yellow-green tail.   That yellow tail is a good indicator that this one is a juvenile.

Juvenile copperheads almost always have this feature, and is used as a caudal lure, luring prey to them when they wiggle it back and forth.

They are fascinating.  Even if I try to get a few pictures of a live one, I always look directly at the animal and try not to disturb it.

I don't kill these snakes, as they are just part of the nature around here, plus they are almost always seen by me in protected natural areas.

Venomous snakes are not something that should be "fooled" with.  They can kill you.  Though it is rare in the area that this happens, it still is possible, and knowing what venomous snakes look like can be very helpful in places where they are commonly found (parks, river banks, rocky outcroppings, woodpiles).  These snakes should not be feared, but people should be aware of where they most likely are going to be, what to do if you get bit, and more importantly, to not pick them up.

A Shenandoah Hike and a Fairfax County Camera Check

Today was a great day for hiking and camera checking.  The trails of Shenandoah National Park were calling my name and I had to get out there on this day off of work and school.  There was still some snow on the ground from previous storms but today was about 58 degrees and decently sunny.

It was a great hike that led us down the trail to a great basalt rock formation. . .

. . .and a large ice formation left over from this winter's coldest days.

It was a good day to just get out and enjoy the outdoors.

Another highlight of the day came from when checking a camera-trap in Chantilly after the hike.

Cats, dogs, coyotes, cardinals, humans, red foxes, and raccoons all came by the camera.

Here's the best picture of a Chantilly Coyote.

Arctic Camera Trapping in Virginia

It's cold out in Virginia (and will be for the next two days).  Tomorrow's wind-chill will make it feel somewhere around -16 degrees Fahrenheit.

What this means for camera-trapping is that the cameras might not even be working.  The components within the camera may freeze, electric circuits may short out, and the batteries may freeze up.  We'll see.  It's hit or miss when it comes to the batteries of trail cameras working in real cold.  Sometimes they work fine, sometimes not at all.

Recently, a lot of batteries have "frozen up", which is why there are no trail camera results pictures in this post.  So you'll have to manage with a picture of what a camera-trapper (or any sane person that spends a lot of time in the outdoors) will look like tomorrow.

Taking Chances in the Snow

Snow is on the ground and hope is in my mind for more "Fox in Snow" camera-trap images.  See a previous example of a "Fox in the Snow" image in White Snow for White Legs .

The better part of yesterday was spent hiking, birding, and camera-trapping around in the white stuff.  I was in search of more places to set up the cams.  The big problem with this though, is that I put up expensive equipment in the middle of the woods, out of view of anybody, with my footprints very well defined in the snow.

It's a risk, I know.

If somebody really wants to follow me off trail to see what I was doing, they can.  I tried to be good about it though.  When possible I rerouted myself, walked across logs, and walked on places of high grass so that my footprints would be harder to track.

In addition to this, windy conditions last night blew up the "dry" powdery snow and hopefully covered my tracks a little better. 

If I didn't risk these cameras often to poachers, off-trail walkers, teenagers, bears, rising waters, and the weather, then I probably would have very few pictures and this blog wouldn't exist. 

Beavers on the Goose

"The Goose".  It's how a few of us who camera-trap refer to Goose Creek.

Goose Creek is a state scenic  river that runs through Leesburg, Va and flows into the Potomac River.

I put a few cameras up last week right near the banks of Goose Creek near beaver chewed trees.

The results are great.

As you can see, the beavers are hard at work. 

For now, the cameras have been taken down.  They were just to0 visible to have there for too long.

Solo Turkey

This is the turkey that I mentioned in my last post (Another Fox Meal).

It walked right in front the camera without seeming to care at all. 

That's the great thing about using camera traps (trail cameras, game cameras) for research surveys of animals. Animals seem to care less if there is an unmanned camera around, than they would have if a person was standing there

Camera traps offer a way to view wildlife in ways that we wouldn't see if a person was present.

If a human was around, animals would be even more wary and scared.

All in all, it was just another day in the great outdoors for this gobbler.