A lot later than usual for me, but finally got my first snakes of the year. Several Mississippi green watersnakes (Nerodia cyclopion) basking in an extensive marsh near Houston.

AgEng06 said:

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The same one it was in the 2017 thread...

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And over the last few years in about a half a dozen various FB posts from all over the country . This picture seems to pop up every spring.

Hope this young girl can make a full recovery.

https://www.today.com/health/5-year-old-texas-girl-recovering-frightening-attack-venomous-rattlesnake-t121529

Ag by Vows said:

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Hope this young girl can make a full recovery.

https://www.today.com/health/5-year-old-texas-girl-recovering-frightening-attack-venomous-rattlesnake-t121529

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Chopper + antiven, yikes. Hope her college fund will recover.

Anybody else notice that they turned the bite into a smiley face

Ag by Vows said:

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Hope this young girl can make a full recovery.

https://www.today.com/health/5-year-old-texas-girl-recovering-frightening-attack-venomous-rattlesnake-t121529

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From the angle, it looks like the snake caught her foot head on and managed to pierce the shoe and sock. Is that typical or was the snake maybe bigger than average?

12f Mane said:

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Rattlesnakes don't attack, they defend. Unfortunate story, but the wording only perpetuates misinformation.

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Would it be fair to say they attack in defense? Or is the snake the real victim here?

An average sized rattlesnake could easily pierce a little girl's shoe and sock (depending on what the shoe is made of.) Thats why rattlesnake proof boots exist.

This little fella was moving slowly towards my back yard in Parker Co. this morning. Rough earth snake?

so how is everybody celebrating national serpent day?

Looks like a king snake to me. Go pet it.

*This post is neither legal nor medical advice and should be taken with a tablespoon of salt. I am not liable if you choose to follow the suggestions of this post.*

12f Mane said:

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Drinking beer

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REALLY cool looking hognose!

Rat snake obviously

That looks much darker than most of the timber rattlers I've seen in the past. Would it be considered melanistic?

No, within the normal range of coloration for a northern population snake. This one was from western North Carolina.

Awesome video. I imagine the snake is thinking something along the lines of this.

GOD ****** THESE MOTHER ******* WINGS WHAT THE ***** IS THIS **** STUPID PIECE OF **** BAT WONT ******** COOPERATE

DAMMMMMIIIIITTTT

If you want some entertainment like that, go to watch the bat emergence at Bracken Cave near San Antonio. There are several coachwhips that come out for the emergencies and race around grabbing bats that end up grounded as they emerge.

I highly recommend Bracken Cave & all of the other public bat roosts. I've visited most of the larger public ones in the state at one time or another. Yep, I'm a big nerd...but it's so cool. The best part about the bat exit is watching the predators catching the bats. Hawks, falcons, owls, coons, and snakes are the most common. I was at Bracken last summer and a mother skunk came to the exit with 3 "teenaged" offspring and began rummaging around the rocks between the cave and the viewing stands for fallen bats and stirred up a rattlesnake. I couldn't see it but his sound was distinctly rattlesnake. The skunks quickly moved elsewhere.

Wow! I saw three snakes. Did I miss any?

I think there were only three in this sequence. I've had more than that in some ... a couple on the ledges then a couple more on the cave floor but I don't think there were any on the floor here.
They don't have to eat everyday so after one really good meal, they might not eat again for a week or more. There are always several shed skins laying around inside so that tells me they are growing well.
This is a guess on my part, but I have recognized seven individuals BUT...I'd be willing to bet there could 2-3 times that many inside sleeping off previous meals. The places to hide in the cave are so numerous it would be literally impossible to locate them all.
The explored/accessible portion of this cave is about 100 meters long but air flows out of a dozen different openings too small to crawl through. I have only placed cameras at the entrance mainly for convenience & ease of access. If I had more cams & more time I'd put them throughout this cave to see what else is revealed.

That's absolutely fascinating

Any idea if similar studies are done at the Frio bat cave?

I have seen the hawks catching bats as they exit the cave and can only imagine the rat snakes join in on the action as well. Really cool! Thanks for sharing

Edit - Frio autocorrects to Drip? ... I hate this damn phone sometimes

Wow. Really cool stuff, thanks for posting

I have no idea about predator/bat research at other caves. I only imagine it has been done at some level. This is the only bat cave I have this level of access to & the freedom to place cameras. The relatively small size of the exit is actually beneficial to my filming because the bats are forced to fly through the narrow gauntlet of snakes versus an opening that might be many yards wide. The layout of the outside entrance of this cave is visible on several other vids posted on other non-snake related vids on You Tube.
Since the bats don't leave the cave until AFTER dark, hawks & falcons are not an issue for them. Owls might be but I can't see in the darkness. Need some night vision.
I do have some other yet-to-be-posted clips taken over a period of several days where a feral cat (I hate feral cats) positions himself in front of the camera & repeatedly jumps up to snag flying bats. He was occasionally successful because, even if you can't see him in the foreground, you can hear him crunching bat bones as he sat within mic range of the camera. I won't post the cat here since I don't want to derail the thread more than I already have.
In the spring when the humidity is high & the cave invertebrates all leave the cave to forage shortly after dark, a ring of gulf coast toads surround the opening to feed on cave crickets and other insects.
It's all fascinating & I'm sure I am only aware of a tiny portion of the REAL goings on of the cave. It's literally a world unto itself.

It really is amazing the wide variety of wildlife that sets up to feed at large bat colonies. At the Waugh Drive bridge in Houston, we have seen snakes, gar, yellow crowned night herons, redtailed Hawks, peregrine falcons, and owls all congregate ahead of the emergence to feed on bats.

I have no intent to hijack this thread or start a new one. Heck, I just learned how to post to YouTube last month. Caves & karst in general create very unique environments for all kinds of animals & this one is no exception. There are four known openings that breathe but I'm positive there are others I haven't found. The last one I found was about twenty years ago on a very cold morning deer hunt when I found six inch hole in the rock that was breathing fog. This shaft goes about 10 feet down then tails off with air flowing through indicating other passages. It was kind of cool to flip rocks out of the way with a backhoe & be the first human to enter this cavity.

There are other depressions that never hold water, areas of deeper soil in rocky areas and other indicators of caves/sinkholes or at least some sort of anomaly. An archeologist doing a test hole (we're only seven miles from Gault) into paleo deposits of cultural material has found speleotherms (cave formations) in the "Indian camp" so those folks ventured into some of the caves at some point in time & collected "pretty rocks" to take home.

The world is such a cool place & I just love learning all I can about things that too many people choose to overlook or ignore. I learn so much by slowing down & just watching things do what is natural to them.

BCO07 said:

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That looks much darker than most of the timber rattlers I've seen in the past. Would it be considered melanistic?

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Here in virginia Timber or Canebrake can be even much darker color in SWVa to more traditional color in southeast Virginia Beach south to NC