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Patricio Swayze

By Patricio Swayze
in Daily Texan

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Patricio Swayze
Patricio Swayze

Flipped a board just outside of Austin and found 2 Coachwhips and one Western Diamondback.  The buzz worm tagged one of the coachwhips and he took of.  I can't find anything definitive on whether thei

Patricio Swayze
Patricio Swayze

Awesome ratsnake SurlyBDR. Well, it was a very active day out in the Katy Prairie.  I figured it would be a good day to go with all the rain that we had, but wasn't expecting all the flooding.  I

Patricio Swayze
Patricio Swayze

I thought I was going to find a bunch of cool snakes today.  Only saw two ribbon snakes.  However, one was being eaten by a hawk, so that is pretty cool.  Not the best or sharpest shots, but still coo

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Brothahorn

Brothahorn 10096

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Riding the mountain bike at the ranch in Llano today and had a 3.5-4' snake dart out of the grass between the tire tracks on one of the fence line roads and haul ass straight down the road in front of me. It was kind of a mottled grey with maybe a little blue tint and a tan or yellow belly. It was fast as fuck and was able to pull away from me and I was riding a mountain bike. My FIL, who grew up out there called it a "white racer". I figure it had to be a racer of some sort, or maybe some variation of a coachwhip, but I can't find anything online. Long skinny snake with a very small head. I figure one of you assholes will know what it is. 

I call bull. We all know white snakes don’t the muscle s to be fast.
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WBT

WBT 20884

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 5/29/2020 at 6:02 PM, Patricio Swayze said:

This Yellow-bellied Racer wasn't fast enough to escape this Red-shouldered Hawk.

49950003031_37ff5022af_o.jpg

49949978731_fa4309e816_o.jpg

49950272712_37808a9615_o.jpg

Cool pics.  There's a red shoulder that's been hitting up my yard for the last month or so.  I've seen her catch an anole but no sneks so far.  

Edited by WBT
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gsoda3

gsoda3 3358

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33 minutes ago, Braff Zacklin said:

Growing up in Austin, every tarantula I ever came across moved very, very slowly. However, they can use their rear legs to fling bristles on their abdomen at you.

i'm sorry, WHAT? can those hurt you beyond causing discomfort?  those some ninja skills there.

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Braff Zacklin

Braff Zacklin 13675

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33 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

i'm sorry, WHAT? can those hurt you beyond causing discomfort?  those some ninja skills there.

Wikipedia can describe this more intelligently:

Quote

Most New World tarantulas are equipped with urticating hairs on their abdomens, and almost always throw these barbed bristles as the first line of defense. These bristles irritate sensitive areas of the body and especially seem to target curious animals that may sniff these bristles into the mucous membranes of the nose. Some species have more effective urticating bristles than others. The goliath birdeater is known for its particularly irritating urticating bristles. They can penetrate the cornea, so eye protection should be worn when handling such tarantulas.[24]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31987

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I saw two ded snek (I hope) on a MTB ride Monday.  One was dark and stretched out across the trail because ded and I ran over it (didn't move).  The other was a baby copperhead that someone ran over apparently.  Did not run over it.

I hate harming/killing creatures senselessly when they are posing me no threat, so hopefully both were already passed.

/csb

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31987

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2 hours ago, Shoxthemonkey said:

I will use the word "urticating" at least  5 times today to sear it into my memory.

I think the root word there is urticaria, which is the fancy name for hives, which means the bristles provoke a histamine reaction.  Which means itchy af.

Edited by TwiceHorn
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chitwood

chitwood 155

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I did not realize until very recently that the red/yellow rhyme for coral snakes only works for North American corals.  Other corals, including central and south america, have a different color scheme.  If you ask me, that is cheating.

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Onboard 2.0

Onboard 2.0 9083

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2 hours ago, chitwood said:

I did not realize until very recently that the red/yellow rhyme for coral snakes only works for North American corals.  Other corals, including central and south america, have a different color scheme.  If you ask me, that is cheating.

That's a sneaky snek for ya...

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Braff Zacklin

Braff Zacklin 13675

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4 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

I think the root word there is urticaria, which is the fancy name for hives, which means the bristles provoke a histamine reaction.  Which means itchy af.

My understanding, as well.

Not sure if the bristles cause an allergic reaction, but no doubt they would be irritating and itchy... like my presence upon this board! MuahahahahaHAH!

Whoa, dunno where that came from. Too much caffeine this a.m.

Edited by Braff Zacklin
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Zwylde

Zwylde 822

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Texas Brown Tarantulas are harmless.  Found one and kept it as a pet all through college.  It was a great party trick to take it out and let it crawl up your arm.  People get so freaked out thinking its going to bite you and put you in some sort of death coma.

Read up on them back then and found out you almost always only see the males if you see one in the wild.  They are out looking for some poonanny.  The females stay in their dens and mostly only come out to feed at night. 

 

 

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Buzzrock

Buzzrock 15115

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Texas Brown Tarantulas are harmless.  Found one and kept it as a pet all through college.  It was a great party trick to take it out and let it crawl up your arm.  People get so freaked out thinking its going to bite you and put you in some sort of death coma.
Read up on them back then and found out you almost always only see the males if you see one in the wild.  They are out looking for some poonanny.  The females stay in their dens and mostly only come out to feed at night. 
 
 


...mostly
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Patricio Swayze

Patricio Swayze 17058

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9 hours ago, Frank Erwin said:

Swayze sets very high standards for Snek photography.  Not trying to discourage anyone else from sending in Snek photos, keep them coming.  We just all pale in comparison to him.  Seriously, you should put together some kind of book with all your photos.

Thanks.  I think I am getting better at it.  Snake photography are more of a recent thing for me.  But I have been doing photography for 25 years.  You should check out the photo thread in the Hobbies forum.  But I follow some guys on Instagram that have stunning shots of snakes and reptiles.  I am trying to catch up.

But to your point, I love this thread and that folks post photos, regardless of quality.  I just like to give people shit for taking a photo from 10 yards away.

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31987

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Came across a snek riding today.  Stretched out across the trail, but I was going slow enough to stop.  Still brightly colored and its head was up off the ground.

But it didn't move until I told it to a couple of times.  Didn't see any "flat spots" or distortions indicating it was injured and when it moved off, it did so normally.

Don't know what it was, had a slender head and kind of circular or honeycomb light pattern on the body, dark background.  About half inch in diameter, about 24" long.  No stripes, either longitudinal or lateral. Should have taken a pic, but I was more concerned with its life status and it moving off the trail.  Fairly similar to the rat snek in 1746, but much slimmer and kind of reddish.

Kind of made me sad because I have recently assumed that any snek that didn't move as I approached, and ran over, was ded snek.  I do think most of the ones I have seen like that lately were ded because their colors had faded to black.

Only other time I have seen snek not move was a foot-long copperhead (so young) stretched out on the same trail.  Had to throw dirt at it to get it moving.

Edited by TwiceHorn
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