Ah-ha!
Here’s another one.
Nice ones @Northern_Piper !
Today, I saw a lone black bear cross the walking path I was on. I did not stop to take a picture (it was quite far away), but did decide not to go further down the path. It’s berry season.
The mystery bird has died! My sister found it in her backyard a couple of days ago. Looking closer at it she thinks it was a crow that had some sort of disease or birth defect. Maybe mites?
I sent the pictures to a website that will ID birds for you. I was told it looked like a juvenile wild turkey!!?? I disagree with that. It looks nothing like that.
I’m in Colorado for a couple weeks, at the front range this week and soon the Western slope.
Having drinks on the deck and we see two Bull Elk with large racks strolling down the street and through the yards stopping to eat crabapples. Apparently these were young guys but holy shitskies it was thrilling! Our hosts were glad we got to witness it but they said it’s a fairly common occurrence and some days they have herds lounging in their neatly kept yard.
OK, so this is a bigger deal in the UK than it would be in many other parts of the world, but nevertheless…
I’m on my allotment this evening, harvesting and doing the watering, and in amongst the peas there was this (click, as ever, for the complete photo):
This is not a commonplace round these parts - and yes, we do have venomous snakes in this country. I borrowed some shears from a neighbor to cut the netting and drop the snake into a bucket, while neighbor got some messages on the allotment Whatsapp group calling for help. I knew E knew stuff about snakes, but it turns out we have a whole allotment snakeology department (!). V turned up as well as E; and as E messaged wildlife contacts for a definitive ID, V borrowed some scissors and started cutting the snake out of the netting. (She ignored my polite inquiry about whether the ID should perhaps come before the scissors bit).
Anyways, ID = grass snake = harmless, but not something you see at all often. Only the third time in my life (I think) that I’ve seen a grass snake. Normally if you see a snake round here it’s an adder and is venomous. Here he/she is cut free from the net:
After consulting with a wildlife rescue (over a minor injury), V was able to release the snake to get back to its job of eating the local mouse population.
j
Very nice! I always enjoy seeing a good snake, although they’re fairly common here.
We see snakes often, but they are all either rat snakes or garter snakes.
Carolina wrens built a nest in a planter on our porch. It’s been fun watching, then yesterday the chick fledged and the porch has been off limits out of concern for the dogs unintentionally injuring the goofy chick
It was a hell of a surprise, I can tell you. One of those moments when you think… oh look - what is that? - it’s a - it’s a - it’s a - Holy Shit!
@kayaker - yeah, I remember your snake stories. We have a lot of slow worms on the allotment (which is also great) and I went through two steps of shock, the first being … that’s an astonishingly large slow worm; followed by …uh-oh…
j
I would have identified this as a harmless to humans snake just going by the head shape. Generally, venomous snakes have a triangular head shape and harmless snakes have their jaws in line with their bodies, as this one does. Glad it is released to continue its summer.
We (most of us) just don’t have that degree of familiarity with snakes in this country.
j
Ah. For the most part, neither does Minnesota, but climate change might also change that. Yeehaw.
That would be pit vipers that have that distinctive head shape. Adders are not pit vipers.
Quote from LiveScience
“European adders are usually gray or reddish brown, though they can also be black, white, cream or pale yellow. Adders have a V shape on their heads and scales that partially cover their eyes, giving them a lidded appearance.”
Snake people dissuade folks from relying on head shape to determine venomous/safe snakes. Some very safe snakes will flatten their heads as a form of mimicry when frightened. Some people routinely kill venomous snakes, and mistakenly kill mimicry snakes. (They also often get bitten. Attempting to kill a snake is dangerous)
Most areas have a few venomous snakes. Learning to ID them is a good thing.
Generally that works in North America with most snakes you encounter, though Batesian mimicry is rife in snakes - some like gopher snakes will flatten their heads to look more triangular (short youtube video). In Minnesota though, bearing that caveat in mind, that kinda works (no coral snakes that far north).
Elapids have a rather different venom mechanism and many have rather less distinctly triangular heads. For example note the rarely encountered in the U.S. coral snakes - no triangle there. Coral snakes are predominantly fossorial and they have that relatively small-headed profile of typical burrowing snakes.
So never take that as gospel to South America, where coral snakes are more common. Or Asia, Africa, Australia, etc. - as a generalism it is actually very geographically specific 
. I have no problems teaching that generalism to, say, kids in a Minnesota class room as long as those very important caveats (possibility of mimics, less applicable outside Canada/Northern U.S.) are added.
Absolutely correct.
They are vipers however (actually in the type genus, Vipera). Pit vipers (crotalinae) and vipers stricto sensu (viperinae) are sister subfamilies in the larger viper family (viperidae). All New World vipers are crotalines, so in the U.S. vipers are pit vipers by definition. In Europe you predominantly have viperine vipers, but in Asian Russia for example you can find Haly’s pit viper east of the Urals.
Vipers do as a family generally tend to have somewhat triangular-shaped heads.
I’d rather mistake a non-venomous snake as venomous than vice-versa.
No argument there. If you ever have a chance to see a copy of The Venomous Reptiles of Latin America in the back it has plates of the species and many mimics. The species specific coral snake mimics are frequently astoundingly close in color pattern. I mean astoundingly (coral snake is on the right).
I’m glad you found it while it was still alive! We’ve had some unfortunate incidents here with black/rat snakes and deer netting and by the time I discovered them, it was too late.
Speaking of mimicry, a central rat snake scared the bejesus out of my gf one day. It was in some dried leaves and shook its tail, sounding very much like a rattle.
That’s awesome!