The Nature Photography Thread

[kueluck]

We splunked up and down the rivers and no hellbenders to be found. I was hoping, but then I was also hoping to find some black bear also. We did find one small brown salamander, but it took off so quick I couldn’t I.D. it, and a couple of blue tailed skinks, crawfish, and at night heard a ton of screech owls. But the landscape was AWESOME.

Great pic!!! I love pisgah forest. Did you get to see any hellbenders in the water?

[BLUESIRTALIS]

A couple of years back i was up at pisgah forest and this kid found about a 14" hellbender just walking on the bottom of the river.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

What is a crawfish?

[guidofatherof5]

What is a crawfish?

Crayfish - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Thanks for the link Steve

[ConcinusMan]

Definitely not a fish. Basically it's a small freshwater version of a lobster. Here in the west, there's two types. A rather large one that lives in murky ponds and lakes, and it lives in burrows in muddy banks, just below the water's surface. It tends to be very red and has very large powerful pinchers. Another type lives in clear, cold streams with rocky bottoms. It's max size is smaller than the lake type, and it tends to be dark in color and has much weaker smaller pinchers. That type tastes delicious. I like to bait traps with bacon and catch a bunch, cook the tails and eat them with butter like you would do with lobster. It's good, but not as rich as lobster. I wouldn't eat the muddy lake type. They tend to taste like crap and their meat is often infested with worms.

[ProXimuS]

I got this in an email my grandpa forwarded to me(I don't know who this is originally from).


"This has to be the weirdest thing that ever floated by me in the river.
They were stuck together in death lock, each wanting to kill the other first.

My guess is that the falcon snatched up the tasty snake, and it somehow got its tail around the falcons neck, strangling it in midair causing both of them to crash into the comal river. They are both alive and well, considering.

I think a few more minutes and the snake would have won. The tail was actually tied in a knot around the neck, and getting tighter by the second. I got the snake untied, and well, as you can see, they both made it.

This is another one of those stories you tell, and are always acknowledged with "yeah, right!" Well, heres the proof.

Neither of them bit me or scratched me, the snake didnt want to stop biting the falcons leg, and only let go after I had untied everything else.

I got the water out of the falcons lungs with birdie inversion technique, and stayed with him until he was almost dried off in the sun, and flying a little. Ball of snake and falcon, that is the weirdest thing I have pulled out of the water so far, it beats the wagon wheel!"

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[-MARWOLAETH-]

Mind blow

[guidofatherof5]

And it plays out many times over everyday.

[BLUESIRTALIS]

That falcon thought he was going to have an easy meal.