Pine snakes

[bobpbx]

They do lunge at you. If you fear them, it's effective I suppose. I saw a red tail hawk take off from the ground yesterday in the open, so I went to investigate. Apparently there was a standoff with this snake. I moved him to the shrubs, but it was still very agitated. Cell phone camera, poor quality, but if you watch it on youtube (link in corner of photo below) it comes in clear.

 

[Teegate]

Great video Bob.

 

[Pan]

Wow!

I just walked by this fellow ten minutes ago, 2,500 miles away but u have them too...

 

[Pan]

 

[manumuskin]

Looks like a Western Diamondback to me.We definitely do not have them here.

 

[Pan]

Looks like a Western Diamondback to me.We definitely do not have them here.

You have rattlesnakes. I've seen bigger ones in NY-NJ than I have in Arizona. I almost stepped on a giant one up in Near Mtn State Park. I got snake bit near Death Valley though.

 

[Pan]

Photo of a snake i took in the NJPB by Simm Place on 22 Sep 1971. What kind is it?

 

[manumuskin]

Yes but not diamondbacks.The photo looks like a Northern Water Snake but a bit fuzzy. what kind of snake got you in Death valley? Hospit,lized?

 

[Pan]

... what kind of snake got you in Death valley? Hospit,lized?

Not sure. Not sure i was even really snakebit. I had been camping in and around Death Valley in July 1995. temp up to 130 one day on the salt flats which was just 4 degrees less than the hottest authenticated temp ever recorded on earth at the same place (did it again there this year!). That was below sea level, tho some nights i'd drive to a slightly higher elevation within DV Monument to try to sleep. On the final day i was wandering around in the tall grass in the beautiful nearby Darwin Oasis (since, i believe, incorporated in DV Nat'l Park), and then i drove up to a very high altitude around the bristlecone pines. I set up camp, but that night i had difficulty catching my breath. I thought it was the altitude change, but then i also noticed that my leg was swollen up and there was what appeared to be two puncture marks on it, but i felt nothing bite me in Darwin. In the middle of the night i broke camp and drove down to 4,000' altitude where i was able to sleep good. And no i didn't go to a doctor because I felt OK after that and it is a mystery to me whether i was really bitten and if so by what.

Me in DV salt flats, temp 130F. I also have some photos of Darwin Falls somewhere.

 

[bobpbx]

Looks like a good spot for a Dollar General store.

 

[Pan]

Looks like a good spot for a Dollar General store.

Looks like a good spot to film the final scene of a great classic silent movie...

 

[manumuskin]

Not sure. Not sure i was even really snakebit. I had been camping in and around Death Valley in July 1995. temp up to 130 one day on the salt flats which was just 4 degrees less than the hottest authenticated temp ever recorded on earth at the same place (did it again there this year!). That was below sea level, tho some nights i'd drive to a slightly higher elevation within DV Monument to try to sleep. On the final day i was wandering around in the tall grass in the beautiful nearby Darwin Oasis (since, i believe, incorporated in DV Nat'l Park), and then i drove up to a very high altitude around the bristlecone pines. I set up camp, but that night i had difficulty catching my breath. I thought it was the altitude change, but then i also noticed that my leg was swollen up and there was what appeared to be two puncture marks on it, but i felt nothing bite me in Darwin. In the middle of the night i broke camp and drove down to 4,000' altitude where i was able to sleep good. And no i didn't go to a doctor because I felt OK after that and it is a mystery to me whether i was really bitten and if so by what.

Me in DV salt flats, temp 130F. I also have some photos of Darwin Falls somewhere.

View attachment 16126

Sounds like you were in the location known as Badwater.Lowest spot in western hemisphere at I think around -282 ft below sea level.The only place it ever hit hotter was Libya at 136. I know what your talking about ,it was hitting between 122 and 128 in Saudi Arabia in may before I came home back in 91. People would say "Oh but it's a dry heat" Like somehow a little humidity here in NJ makes this worse.Let me tell you something,122 degrees is 122 degrees.I kicked a two liter empty plastic bottle laying in the sand one time and the Bottle above ground went flying and all that was left was some oily globs in the shape of a bottle lying in the sand where everything below ground level had melted.Proof plasyi is indeed made out of oil.

 

[Pan]

Sounds like you were in the location known as Badwater.Lowest spot in western hemisphere at I think around -282 ft below sea level.The only place it ever hit hotter was Libya at 136. I know what your talking about ,it was hitting between 122 and 128 in Saudi Arabia in may before I came home back in 91. People would say "Oh but it's a dry heat" Like somehow a little humidity here in NJ makes this worse.Let me tell you something,122 degrees is 122 degrees.I kicked a two liter empty plastic bottle laying in the sand one time and the Bottle above ground went flying and all that was left was some oily globs in the shape of a bottle lying in the sand where everything below ground level had melted.Proof plasyi is indeed made out of oil.

They no longer recognize that 136 Sahara desert temp as proven legit, and i believe they r also no longer recognizing the 134 Death Valley - yes, Badwater salt flats - temp as legit - so when i was there in that photo above it was the hottest confirmed day on earth (tho I'm told it got even hotter back in the pre-Cambrian!), and then it did it again this year - but i was in Tucson this year where it was "only" about 120 when my truck engine broke. Yeah right dry heat. I tried running when i was there (above) but i didn't get very far. They have a a race where they run from that spot straight up to the highest spot in the 48 states, Mt Whitney. It's called the "Badwater 135".

 

[manumuskin]

I didn't run even when I was in shape.Hiking,Bushwacking, Swimming,Caving but never much on running unless it was a sprint to avoid getting caught trespassing or whooped for counting coup at a beer party but now I"m fat and old so even sprinting is not an option so I have almost given up trespassing or I"m very careful when I do it and I totally have given up messing with people in the woods unless their very drunk

 

[Pan]

I didn't run even when I was in shape.Hiking,Bushwacking, Swimming,Caving...

That brings up this old thread:

Searching For A Cave In The Pines

I have been questioned on my geological leanings in the past but I do know what it takes to make a cave and south jersey doesn't have it.Cave it is not,now to find out what it is??? One of my sports used to be caving (spelunking). I was a member of the Met Grotto Caving Club in NYC, and I...

forums.njpinebarrens.com

 

[bobpbx]

This thread reminded me of something. I watched that Pine Barrens documentary last night. Have any of you herpers seen it? At around 14 min, 57 seconds there is a shot of a canoe going down the stream and in the foreground ( water and lily pads) a snake is swimming in the water. It looks like a pine snake, but I'm not good enough to say it definitely is (but the white patches were bright white, looked unusual). I've never seen one in the water. I'm not saying they don't swim, but it's really odd that a guy shooting a movie would have a pine snake just happen to be swimming in front of him with a canoe in the distance.

 

[smoke_jumper]

This thread reminded me of something. I watched that Pine Barrens documentary last night. Have any of you herpers seen it? At around 14 min, 57 seconds there is a shot of a canoe going down the stream and in the foreground ( water and lily pads) a snake is swimming in the water. It looks like a pine snake, but I'm not good enough to say it definitely is (but the white patches were bright white, looked unusual). I've never seen one in the water. I'm not saying they don't swim, but it's really odd that a guy shooting a movie would have a pine snake just happen to be swimming in front of him with a canoe in the distance.

When my wife and I were just dating went on a kayak trip with my brothers. She had a large pine snake cross right in front of her. She was ready to go home after that lol. It swam with its head very high out of the water like it didn’t want to get wet and got out very fast. But once he got out he went up the bank slow and I was able to really look at him.

 

[manumuskin]

Every snake can swim.Where is this video Bob that you want the snake identified?

 

[bobpbx]

Every snake can swim.Where is this video Bob that you want the snake identified?

I found it on Amazon Prime Al. If you don't have that, there is a thread in here that recently mentioned the movie. I'll look for it.

 

[bobpbx]

This one Al.

The Pine Barrens

The Pine Barrens is an experimental documentary portrait of the New Jersey Pinelands by artist David Scott Kessler featuring the music of the Ruins of Friendship Orchestra.

www.pinebarrensfilm.com