Tag: canebrake rattlesnake
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Winter Bliss
When you leave a beautiful place, you carry it with you wherever you go. ~Alexandra Stoddard I certainly carry certain places with me. And moments in those places have a way of adhering to my memory, reappearing when my mind wanders to sights and sounds of their wildness, their beauty, their mystery. And I now Read more…
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When the Geese are Gone
Watching the animals come and go, and feeling the land swell up to meet them and then feeling it grow still at their departure, I came to think of the migrations as breath, as the land breathing. ~Barry Lopez What a difference a week makes. Less than seven days had passed between my last two Read more…
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Snakes on a Plain (Coastal Plain, that is)
For hibernating rodent and hidden turtle, what dreams, I wonder, come on such a day of spring in January? ~Edwin Way Teale I just returned from several days down at Pocosin Lakes and Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuges. The weather started off beautiful, then wet and warm, then cold and windy – quite a variety of Read more…
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Definitely Not a Baby Rattle
Venomous snakes are among the most maligned and misunderstood animals on earth. ~In Snakes of the Southeast by Whit Gibbons and Mike Dorcas In a recent post, I mentioned my first ever encounter with a juvenile Canebrake Rattlesnake while at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. A few days ago, I had the opportunity to drive Read more…
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Baby Rattle
…a wonderful creature, when we consider his form, nature and disposition…he is never known to strike until he is first assaulted or fears himself in danger, and even then always gives the earliest warning by the rattles at the extremity of his tail. ~William Bartram, 1791 I made some time last week to do a Read more…
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A Good Day Down East
One of the great things about retirement is the freedom to take advantage of good weather and make a wildlife watching trip on the spur of the moment. Yesterday was one of those days and I spent it in my favorite area in NC – Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. I arrived about 8 a.m. Read more…
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