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Hey, Brandon; way to go! Congrats on your first pine snake! You've been overdue and deserving a nice one. Guess it hasn't been for lack of tryin', right? As for the reddish blotches... I'm embarassed to say that I just don't remember that feature on pines I've seen of ANY provenance. I'd hate...

Nope. I never saw one that size, but the late Karl Kauffeld, Reptile Curator of the Staten Island Zoo used to state flatly that they were the second largest North American snake at over 8 feet (second to the indigo of Florida and Texas). I gotta report a field observation of a pilot black...

Hey, Dragoncjo, I'm happy for you! Man, those pics make me smell the pines - and that faint touch of vanilla they always seem to give off too - and gives me a lump of homesickness in my throat... Thanks for all of that! Dave

Oughta send a copy to John McPhee; he'd be proud t'be mentioned in the same article as was our own Ben!

... and her plastron (belly plate) is convex (you can tell even from the little bit that shows here); in the male it is flat to slightly concave. Nice shot! Dave

Sorry, Ben, I can't account for that brain fart. Dave

Steve, I rather suspect that with the information you have at hand no one at the police department can prevent you from filing a complaint. No formally lodged complaint? ... Then no need for any kind of substantive response on the part of the local lazy gendarmerie. Just some thoughts of...

What a great day for a field naturalist! You've been due such a day! Again- thanks for the pics and a good report. Dave

Terrific shots- and that first panorama is a special breath-taker! Ten images? Superb stitching job! Thanks for posting them. Dave

I'd sure say you had a real good day! Beautiful photos, as we're coming to expect from you! That "dark phase" red-bellied was a new one on me! Never saw one of those. Quite a beautiful creature in a shibumi sort of way. And those shots of the prevaricating hog-nosed are terrific. The...

Not sure and can't tell for sure. Could even be a northern water snake. A few hints on checking out a shed skin: 1. size. the length and circumference of a shed skin are markedly greater than that of the snake that shed it (due to the overlapping of scales front-to-back and side-to-side). A...

Must be enough woods-wise folks are being sufficiently noisy and wearing "bear bells" during their traipses in the pines to keep them pesky grizzlies at a safe distance - like ... Wyoming? Dave

Danke sehr! Dave

Hey, Ebsi- Thanks for the concise and lucid info on these fascinating plants. Very informative! Dave

Given the concern about H5-N1 Avian Influenza virus, as well as West Nile virus, any unesxdpected bird die-off should definitely be reported to the County or State Health Department. One of the first things they will do in investigation of your report (after collecting a representative sample...

Hey, Jeff, quite a find! Best I can make out from these two views is that it is a late 1800's or early 1900's model of a weltrichtich belfschnabble made just outside Munich at the well-known (but recently abandoned) "Bayern Belfschnabbel Werk und Fabrik" (BBWF). During the War they converted to...

A very correct and apt observation! Yes; Crows - and the rest of the Family Corvidae including jays, ravens, and magpies - are among the most - if not THE most susceptible of avain species to fatal infection with West Nile virus. In fact, One of the first observations in '99 by Dr. Tracy...

Odds are, he's already recovered. The fact that he shed an apparently complete skin, including the labial scales, suggests that the underlying, newly revealed epidermis may be perfectly normal. The one wild snake ( a "pilot black") I caught that was afflicted with "mouth rot" (bacterial...

Great shots, Guy! Great find, Bob! The "...flesh still attached to the head portion..." is not flesh, per se, but evidence of a rather severe bacterial infection with exudate accumulation in and under the labial skin. I've observed such an infection with the pictured distribution only once...

With bated breath we eagerly await the next chapter....