The Nature Photography Thread

[ConcinusMan]

Looks just like the kind of place I would find garters here in the Pacific Northwest.

[Reptar!]

I have way to much photography to put up here lol. If you guys want. I have a facebook just for my photography. feel free to check it out or add me as a friend. Keaton De Smet | Facebook

[ConcinusMan]

I sent you a message and a friend request from Richard Lingo.

Where in Colorado are you? I'm extremely interested in acquiring just a few certain snakes found In CO. Especially milks found usually only in spring.

I want one or a pair of these milks, or others you might find in CO

[Reptar!]

I live in a town just north of Denver. I think that video was shot down south aways. I am taking a trip down to new mexico at the end of march. I might just leave a day early to get down there and go snake wrangling for a day. It might be to early but I will for sure look. What other snakes were you interested in finding here??

[ConcinusMan]

Some pictures from the Portland, Oregon metro area (right outside my house) this morning. Temperature 33 F (barely above freezing)

[ConcinusMan]

[mustang]

I would be quite suspicious of any "snake" tracks found around there.

why, if i found tracks id call myself lucky

[ConcinusMan]

Do I have to spell it out for you Robert? Ever heard of a fictional book called "trails in the sand" ? Who's the author?

You just won't find any snakes that close to the Ocean in that part of Oregon. You must go inland a bit and get away from the harsh wind. Sandy beach and wind-twisted shore pine forest with it's lack of undergrowth just doesn't make very good snake habitat.

It's a beautiful sunny day in Western WA and OR today with several inches of snow on the ground. Unfortunately, it's well below freezing and not expected to thaw. 15-18 degrees expected overnight tonight. It should be around 60 degrees this time of year. Brrrr...

[stonyloam]

OK you are probably wondering why, in this nature photography thread I have a photo of my old fishing hat. Well it is a kind of interesting story, this being a snake forum, and this is not really about snakes, I thought it might fit in here. A couple of weeks ago we were down in Florida visiting my friend Jim, who has been bragging incessantly about his collection of ant lions (my favorite insect) living in his back yard, so first thing when we got there we had to go take a look. On the way out he said “look at this” and there in his lawn was a patch of carnivorous sundew plants. Man! I tried not to look too impressed, and we proceed out the ant lion range, and there were dozens and dozens all over the place, (I have trouble keeping one or two at home), I was crushed, and conceded the “ant lion king” crown to him. We couldn’t help but dig up a big one and place it on a smooth patch of sand to see how long it would take to make a new cone trap. We then took off to look for alligators. Saw one 10 footer and a 4 foot black racer. Anyway it was dark when we got back and decided to go out and see how much progress the ant lion had made. I grabbed my old fishing hat with the LEDs attached and went out to look. We found it but it had not gotten very far, so we headed back to the house. This is where it got interesting (and the hat comes in). As we walked back it occurred to me that there were several tiny points of light in the grass. At first I thought they were just reflections from my hat light off of the droplets on the sundew plants. Then one moved! Maybe not! I said to Jim “what are those specks of light?” He said “what specks?” He could not see them with his LED flashlight. I handed him my hat and he said “wow, I don’t know”. I took his flashlight and held it up to my forehead, right between my eyes and looked. Bingo! Could see them just fine. We had to find out what they were, so we took a closer look. They were spiders! The first one was a large “wolf” spider (about 1 ½ inches across), but there were dozens, all sizes form tiny to impressive. We found an impressive big one, and I decided to tease it, so put my finger in front of it and wiggled it a bit. It instantly jumped for my finger. Two things happened (three if you count nearly crapping my pants), my hand went one way and the spider flew another. After a quick check to make sure it was not on either of us, we decided it was unwise to annoy the large ones. So, the little points of light we saw was the light from our flashlights reflecting back from the spider eyes. The reason we could see them with the hat was that the beam of light was very nearly parallel and very close to the line of sight of our eyes and the light was reflected directly from there eyes to ours. When the light was held off to the side the angle was too great and you could not see the reflection. It may also be that the light emitted from a LED is more columnar than from an incandescent lamp and reflects better in this case. Anyway the hat lights are only a few dollars, and it might be fun to see what is looking back at you from the grass on a warm summer evening. Sorry I did not get any actual photos of the spiders, but a generally good time was had by all. Sorry if this got a little long winded.

[guidofatherof5]

Great story.
I would have love to have seen your face when that spider introduced himself/herself to you.