BS: found in my daughters back yard

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 11:14 AM

Slow-Worm

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Musket
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 10:51 AM

Oh, he buggers off quick....

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 10:25 AM

A Slow-Worm, perhaps?

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Musket
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 09:49 AM

I am but a child. A retired one mind, but a child whenever I go to folk clubs.

Did you know? Thirty five years ago I used to be the youngest in the room at local folk clubs. Still am.

Forgot to mention. There is a small snake that lives in my garden pond. He doesn't eat the newts or tadpoles, or if he does, he isn't greedy. He is about 6" long, spends long periods under water but does come up for air. Been in there at least five years and doesn't seem to grow. Dark coloured but not black and little in the way of markings.

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 08:08 AM

@maeve 👉{{Like}} 😄

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: maeve
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 07:13 AM

Backwoodsman- I believe you! Ireckoned that must have been it.

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 02:58 AM

Yep, we sang that one too - and I go back to 1952 as the beginning of my school career, way before you! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Musket
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 02:51 AM

I never have that problem on account of being never wrong.

I find it useful as an approach.

I walked past a school yard whilst popping down to the post office yesterday. I heard some girls singing to a skipping game, (obviously hadn't downloaded a skipping app yet) and was delighted to hear the same song I heard as a kid, thirty miles away at my school.

My friend Billy has a ten foot willy
He showed it to the girl next door
She thought it was a snake
So she hit it with a rake
Now it's only four foot four.

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 24 Mar 15 - 12:26 AM

"No worries, Backwoodsman...and I'm Maeve! :D"

LOL! I know you are, Maeve!

Something else that's driving me nuts, and which compounds my ever-increasing volume of brain-farts, is my iPad's @#*&ing 'predictive text' facility, which constantly changes what I type into something it 'predicts' wrongly! I try to pick these electronic aberrations up and force the @#*&ing thing to say what I told it to say, but a few still slip through.

I did type 'Maeve', honest! 👍😄

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: maeve
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 06:46 PM

Our Milk snakes live in the garden shed, Lovely creatures!

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: ranger1
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 06:32 PM

I have a pair of milk snakes living in the crawl space of my cottage. Right now, they're hibernating, I know this because the rodents have become rather bold. No mice to be found when the snakes are awake. They like to shed their skins under the water heater in the shed, which makes me very popular with my younger nephews, as well as assorted almost-nephews.

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: olddude
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 06:04 PM

Not here Greg at my kids out west. I am still shoveling like you bro

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Greg F.
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 05:09 PM

Well, Dan, I'll see yer little piss-ant garter snake & raise ya a Milk Snake !

By the way, what the heck they doing out & about where you are? We still have 2 feet of snow on the ground!

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: maeve
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 05:04 PM

No worries, Backwoodsman...and I'm Maeve! :D

Sometimes I slap my virtual hands and go do something else while my brain sorts itself out.

Maeve

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 05:01 PM

"Backwoodsman- Don't you love it when your brain plays tricks! I've not seen your Grass or Adder snakes, but would love to. We do have a little snake called the Red-bellied snake that lives on our land, and we protect them like crazy. They're also non-poisonous, small enough for our bantams to be a threat to them.

Madge - only just noticed your post! Apologies for my inattention!

I'm finding nowadays that stuff I've known and been able to remember all my life, certainly for 60 years or so, is falling out of my brain and being replaced by bullshite - stuff that's just plain wrong and I should know it's wrong. I'm finding it increasingly frustrating, not to mention embarrassing when I metaphorically open my mouth and put my foot in it, as I did early in this thread! 😳

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 03:32 PM

That didn't go unnoticed, Mrrzy. . .

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 02:35 PM

"Doug, GUEST - in my post of 04:33 AM, which preceded both of yours"

By five minutes,a fter spending nearly 10 minutes checking details I am not going to appologise for hitting "submit".

No apology requested or necessary, I merely pointed out that, once I'd acknowledged my error, continuing to tell me over and over that I was wrong was pointless. I was wrong, I'm broad-shouldered and man enough to admit it - pointing it out multiple times doesn't make me 'wronger"! That's all.

And I did make you respond (assuming you're the same GUEST which, as you don't indicate who you are by using a constant identity, is open to doubt). 👍😄

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: maeve
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 01:45 PM

That's correct, olddude.

However, friend EBarnacle- We knew of the Side Hill Gouger in New Hampshire, don't ya know. My grandmother's "Hoop Snake" story was from South Carolina.

Maeve :)

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: olddude
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 01:38 PM

Sorry the prairie snake is a loop not hoop. Your right hoop is an old joke

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: EBarnacle
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 12:58 PM

In the plains states of the US, the hoop snake and the side hill gouger occupy the same general territory.

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 12:48 PM

"Doug, GUEST - in my post of 04:33 AM, which preceded both of yours"

By five minutes,a fter spending nearly 10 minutes checking details I am not going to appologise for hitting "submit".

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 12:30 PM

Beautiful guy, Dude. So glad he is safe.
I had several under the holly bush in my front yard about two years ago. The cats may have scared them off. Freddie came home with one one day. Convinced him to leave his little friend outside while he came in for a treat. He was pissed when he went back to get the snake and it was gone. LOL

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: olddude
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 12:24 PM

In the states a grass snake is a harmless bug eater green in color. Nice little snake

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: pdq
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 12:04 PM

The Hoop Snake is an old tale of a snake who takes the tip of his tail in his mouth and forms a hoop so it can roll down the hill. Saves energy, I suppose.

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: olddude
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 11:57 AM

Hey maeve look what he does when you pick him up. It's tail turns bright red and loops in circles. Hence the name. Cool snake and harmless. Check out the images on Google. Pretty snake

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 11:37 AM

I like snakes and don't have any fear of them. Then again, the only poisonous snakes in my neck of the woods are timber rattlers. I've never seen one, but a number of years ago, when Meldrim Thomson was governor, he made a comment that New Hampshire had no rattle snakes. A fellow from the next town over from me who lives on the aptly named Rattlesnake Mountain, paid the governor a visit and dumped out a bagful of rattlers on the governor's desk.

A couple years ago when I was moving a stack of lawn chairs from the ground to the deck, I discovered that the stack had been converted into a condo for garden snakes which vacated the premises in all directions when I started moving the chairs.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: maeve
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 11:32 AM

http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/prairie-ring-necked-snake

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: olddude
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 11:30 AM

Maeve they moved the critter so the dogs wouldn't harm it. They are good to have around. I have many grass and garder snakes here in the east. My vet daughter would pick upthe grass ssnakes as a kid and wanted to keep them as pets.. I always said he has to live in the grass. She loved all critters probably why she is now a vet

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: olddude
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 11:20 AM

There is a prairie ring neck snake that people refer to as a hoop snake.. Absolutely true.. And I never saw one look it up not kidding

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 11:11 AM

Watch for poisonous snakes having sex in the picnic areas of parks - I hear adders like to multiply on log tables.

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: maeve
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 10:58 AM

Rap- "Hoop snake"- my grandmother told a wild tale of such.

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: olddude
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 10:58 AM

Is it garter or garder in Appalachia we spell garder.. Anyway these western one's are far bigger than what I have in ny

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: maeve
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 10:54 AM

Garter snakes, depending on species and location, can eat a rather wide range of prey... which can indeed include mice, slugs,insects, and other critters. Some interesting information on this here: .http://www.gartersnake.info/articles/2004/understanding-garter-snakes-through-their-diets.php

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: olddude
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 10:36 AM

Never saw one how about the western blind snake.. I wish I could see one. I know they liveewere my kids are but an uncommon bug eater that looks like a worm. My worry is for some reason lots of rattlesnake have been reported in garages and such

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: pdq
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 09:36 AM

First comment on flickr says "Cute snake. They do a lot to keep insect and slug numbers down."

Actually, a Garter snake eats mice when it can find them. Probably heads to a small creek and looks for minnows when mice are scarce. I question the 'slugs and insects' concept.

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 09:24 AM

Anyone else ever encounter a hoop snake?

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 08:34 AM

Thanks Doug, much appreciated!
I understand your wondering where time goes, in retirement I'm finding myself busier than when I was a salary-slave!
Cheers!

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 08:31 AM

Not much point in continuing to point out an error that's already been noted and acknowledged, surely?

No, that's what I thought when I realised how long it had taken me to press the submit button. The first part of my post, referring to adders and grass snakes, I knew off the top of my head and could have posted in just a few minutes. I made the mistake of Googling to check what the geographic range of each snake was and then got drawn into a fascinating trail of other British reptiles which is where I came up with the information about the Aesculapian snakes that have escaped into the wild. By the time I had finished, the mistake had been pointed out and acknowledged but I had already pressed the submit button.

I've often wondered where all the hours go in a day. Now I know.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 08:22 AM

"Snake" isn't a word with nice connotations, unfortunately for the beasts in question. "Serpent" doesn't do them any favours either, nor does "viper". Then there's Eve and Cleopatra, and St Paddy didn't do much for their good name. God would never have sent a snake, one of evolution's finest manifestations, as a symbol of evil to Eden, therefore there is no God and Genesis is a pack of lies. Snakes are the very epitome of that synergy of form and function that we call Beauty. I love 'em!

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 08:00 AM

Doug, GUEST - in my post of 04:33 AM, which preceded both of yours, I acknowledged my own brain fart, and agreed that the Adder is not the same thing as the Grass Snake!

Not much point in continuing to point out an error that's already been noted and acknowledged, surely?

What I meant to say originally, of course, was 'Adder (a.k.a. Viper)...".

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Musket
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 06:18 AM

The woods near us are known adder areas. I'm not a huge fan of snakes.

My two lads, once they flew the nest both decided to keep pythons as well as other reptiles. Neither do now, I'm glad to say...

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 06:07 AM

Grass snakes nest every year in my compost heap and I'm proud of that. They can get quite big. Mrs Steve used to take the empty egg cases into school to show the kids. They thrive better if you don't have cats. The cliffs between Bude and Widemouth Bay, near us, are adder strongholds. Adders are a vital part of the cliff top ecosystem and I love 'em. They can hear you coming from miles away and will usually slither off, but every now and again you'll catch one warming itself up in the sun and you can get a really good close look. They are venomous if they bite but they would much rather just avoid you. I always wear sandals on the cliffs and I have nothing to fear except for the odd patch of nettles.

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: maeve
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 05:54 AM

Dan, that's a beautiful Garter snake. I'm glad it wasn't hurt. We have several places we leave undisturbed because a Garter or Milk snake (often several) frequents the place. They are very helpful to have around.

Backwoodsman- Don't you love it when your brain plays tricks! I've not seen your Grass or Adder snakes, but would love to. We do have a little snake called the Red-bellied snake
that lives on our land, and we protect them like crazy. They're also non-poisonous, small enough for our bantams to be a threat to them.

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 04:39 AM

The name "adder" can refer to several species depending where you are from as can "grass snake" but I can't find a reference to any species known by both names.

In UK Vipera berus is the adder and Natrix natrix the grass snake. Vipera berus is definitely not harmless and the bite can kill a small dog.

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 04:36 AM

Adders (a.k.a. Grass Snakes)

Adders are different from grass snakes:

The adder (a.k.a. viper), vipera berus, is a venomous snake found throughout Great Britain. They are not especially dangerous as they normally only bite when disturbed. The bites are painful but rarely fatal;

The non-venomous grass snake, Natrix natrix, is found mainly in England and Wales.

According to Wiki, smooth snakes are also found in southern England as well as some isolated colonies of Aesculapian snakes, around Regent's Park in London and the Welsh Mountain Zoo, near Conwy, which have escaped from captivity. Both of these are non-venomous.

DC

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 04:33 AM

You're right, Officer - apologies for my brain-fart. One of the less desirable effects of encroaching old age.

Adders not aggressive, and are very, very reluctant to bite. They are extremely shy and, unless disturbed unaware, they will move away from an intruder rather than attack. Their bite, in comparison with, for instance, some of the U.S. poisonous snakes, is mild - that's what I meant by harmless.

BTW, I live near, and have spent a very great deal of time in, two large forested areas which adders are known to inhabit. In fifty years, I've got close to only two or three, I left them alone and they simply moved away.

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 04:03 AM

Nor are adders harmless. They are unlikely to kill a healthy adult human, but a bite can make you very unwell.
They are quite small, shy, and rare in most places though quite common where they do occur. They are generally well camouflaged among dried leaves and grasses.

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: GUEST,Officer Bollix
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 03:45 AM

Warning : Adders aren't Grass Snakes.

http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/adder

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 23 Mar 15 - 03:30 AM

I'm so glad I live in a land where we don't have snakes.
Well, not quite true, we have little Adders (a.k.a. Grass Snakes) - very small, harmless and pretty rare.

Subject: RE: BS: found in my daughters back yard
From: olddude
Date: 22 Mar 15 - 11:51 PM

They put it in a bucket and let him go in a wild area. At first I thought bull snake but then saw the pictures again and realized it was just a big fat garder. Nice looking guy. Bull snakes are not poison but aggressive i was glad it was not a bull. They bite and cause infection but a garder is harmless