About a week ago, Phoebe greeted me upon my return home from work with the news that she'd spotted the first copperhead of the summer. This is big, if expected, news. The copperhead was near the garage door, heading into a chipmunk hole. We waited and watched it for the next two hours. It was waiting for nightfall. We were waiting for it to come out so we could catch and relocate it.
Eventually it came out, while I was standing near it talking on the phone. I'm not sure who was on the other end of the phone, but they heard me scream out "The snake's outta the hole!" as I was hanging up.
We caught the copperhead and placed it in the bucket (shown above). It now lives in another place, far from our high-traffic garage.
I don't mind snakes, but I HATE being surprised by them. Where I am staying right now in Trinidad there are three deadly poisonous snakes in the jungle around us. Fer-de-lance, bushmaster, and coral snake are my three neighbors. They belong here—I am just a visitor. I hope to see one or more of these creatures, preferably before they see me, and, from a safe distance. So I'm being extra careful as I walk the forest trails around Asa Wright Nature Centre. No sightings thus far.
This place is amazing, even with the snakes. You can read more about AWNC here. And I'll be posting more from and about Asa in the days and weeks to come.
6 comments:
I would enjoy your Trinidad posts under normal circumstances, but I'm especially excited about them as my family will be there this fall. As we start to plan our itinerary I may take over your comments section with a lot of questions!
:-)
Beautiful Copperhead, BTW. I just returned from Arkansas where I saw more than I cared for. After the first half-dozen I start to get queasy.
-Mike
If I was intent upon spotting a snake of that sort, I'd be seeing them hanging from every tree branch (imaginary ones!)
When we hike out west, I have cougars on my mind--and every lump and dark log in the forest becomes one.
Bill - Sounds like my kinda place... Keep your eyes peeled, the camouflage on those Bothrops is amazing and many people find them when it is almost too late. I found my first crawling out from between my legs in Brazil last year. That being said, all the ones I saw were fairly mild mannered and wonderful snakes to work with and photograph.
That's a great looking copperhead by the way. I am missing SE Ohio this year. It's about time for the coppers and timbers to really start moving at night.
Thanks again for sharing,
Jason
So how do you go about catching a Copperhead?
Even if you don't see a bothrops in Trinidad, it doesn't mean you weren't close to one! My wife and I walked inches past one in Costa Rica, and we never would have known it. But on the way back we ran into a guide showing a client something on the side of the trail. It was a fer-de-lance, just sitting there. Earlier in the day we had passed by on that side of the trail while avoiding a puddle. We must have almost stepped on it. We were lucky, both to have seen it on the way out, and NOT to have seen it on the way in (more than likely after getting bitten by it).
I thing copperheads are beautiful snakes. Were you wearing your "brown" pants? lol!
Well i don't like the copper head snakes. I just love black snakes.
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