My new property has ...

[spyderk]

..... !!!!!!!

I want to post more, I really do, but I don't have a lot of time at the moment. So for now, take a look at the pictures of the first (of many) Eastern Hognose that we have discovered here. Let's just say it was like Christmas morning here at the new property!

 

[AliCat37]

How awesome!!!!!!

 

[MysticExotics]

Great find!

 

[Tavia]

Great find! I'm very jealous of your property, we very rarely find anything around here and never anything in our yard.

 

[Rilee]

That's awesome, your so lucky! All I've ever seen in Oklahoma is cotton mouths and rattlesnakes. Wish I could find a snake that isn't poisoness so I could get up close! I suppose their are ratsnakes but when I see them they are always in the brush by our pond so I can't get a good glimpse. Oh well. At least y'all post pictures of the snakes you've found!

 

[Nanci]

So lucky! Wow- she's a big one!!

 

[drybgerg]

Very nice... One more thing I like about where I'm at: lots of wildlife!. Got a pair of black racers that hang around the shrubs on the front of the house. Have caught 3 corns and a yellow rat. Not uncommon to see a banded water snake or 2.

 

[Chip]

Nice find! I don't see these nearly as often as I used to. A lot of folks kill them thinking they are venomous -their bluff has the opposite effect with humans, I'm afraid.

 

[ashleynicole]

How beautiful!

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

 

[spyderk]

I just had to post those pictures before the whole story, and while I am a little bummed that today's snake hunt didn't pan out as planned, I do have exciting things to report for Tuesday, Wednesday, and a little one on Thursday of this week.

The story: Tuesday morning my two older kids wanted to have a Nerf war in the yard. I was going to have them do other things, but I said sure, why not. It was supposed to be rainy that day, and it wasn't yet, so I figured they should get outside while they could.

I was playing with my youngest (she was trying to teach me how to play My Little Pony, which I am not very good at). My oldest daughter burst into the house, screaming "MOM!" Of course any mom thinks someone broke their leg or is dying somehow, so I ran out and asked what was the matter. She said, with barely any breath left, "SNAKE. BIG! It's HUGE! COME!" So off we went to the field, which is right next to the house.

And that's when I saw the huge, dark, hissing snake coiled in my field. I walked up slowly, not knowing if it would startle and take off. I used my zoom lens on the camera to really see what it was, and I confirmed it was an eastern hognose. After that, it was a ton of pictures and then really wanting to pick it up. So I used a stick to test how it would react to that idea, and it flattened its neck, raised up, and I was SO EXCITED to see something like that.

It started to move away, so I figured I better go for it. That's the third picture above. But as I was doing that, two exciting things happened. My youngest found a garter and my 2nd youngest picked it up (first picture). Then they found another hognose! So I told #2 to pick it up since I was busy with the first hognose. She had gloves so I felt okay in having her try to get it. After the 2 hognose and 1 garter were captured, we walked back to the deck and took a few pictures and put them in plastic bins.

So these pictures are of the garter and the 2nd hognose. I am holding the angry hognose with one gloved hand.

 

[Tavia]

Awesome pictures! Wow, look at that huge open mouth!

 

[spyderk]

Thank you all for the comments. It really is something to find snakes (or whatever interests you) on your own land.

We went back into the field and almost immediately found 2 more as we were walking along the trail. Number 3 was bigger, and was was bluffing like they do and sometimes struck at us if we got too close. Number 4 was the smallest of the group and was a very dramatic one. Of course, I have never seen an eastern hognose at all, so we had read about them in books but never seen them in person! So cool!

 

[Tavia]

Ha ha! Love the drama queen "dead" hoggies! That is cool that one gave you a show!

 

[spyderk]

And so we brought numbers 4 and 5 back to the house, and another garter too.

I called my mom to tell her about it, and I was just walking in the field with my youngest. Then she says, "Mom. Snake!" and we find the 2nd biggest hognose of the day. Both of my youngest wanted to try picking it up for the first time, but my 2nd youngest was intimidated by the posturing, so I let my youngest try. She pretty much picked it up without flinching, and when it did the death roll in her hands, she wasn't even surprised. I loved watching all of this!

The garter pictured was #2 for the day. We ended up with 4 garters and 5 hognose on Tuesday!

 

[spyderk]

Ha ha! Love the drama queen "dead" hoggies! That is cool that one gave you a show!

I had no idea it was such a performance! I guess I assumed it just flopped over. We were very entertained by the writhing in pain, the drooling, the blood in the mouth, the defecating, and then sometimes they look up all cute like, hey, did they buy it? No, back to the writhing ...

 

[spyderk]

And then we released them later on ...

Here is my son holding the big one just before we let it go.

We caught more on Wednesday and 1 one Thursday. I'll post those pics soon.

 

[drybgerg]

Awesome pics! Great family time as well!!

 

[ratsncorns]

Great pics! You can even see their little fangs in the closeup one... very neat!

 

[Chromatic Corns]

This is so cool!