Swamp struck!
| We soon returned and here
is what the daylight revealed: |
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As you can see there is a river that runs through the swamp: |
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Water backs up along the edges of the river in small enclaves. Many species of turtles can be seen in these areas including painted turtles like this one. |
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Certain fish are common here as well. It is not odd to see blue gill, gar, and large bowfin in these areas. We have even seen carp spawning amongst the vegetation. Shallow areas where water meets the land are the sort of
places where the copperbelly water snake can be commonly found. |
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| On one return trip we
discovered that bird-voiced tree frogs also make this swamp their home. It
has been my experience that this species is a bit selective about where it
spends it’s time in the swamp and is not evenly distributed throughout. Many
places in the swamp do not support trees, while others do. I have seen and
heard the majority of bird voice tree frogs in the places in the swamp that
support large numbers of young trees. |
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This awesome habitat is also home to many species of mammals and birds. Beaver are very common and it is easy to spot them and their sign. Great blue herons abound, as do Great Egrets. The lists could go on and on, but as this is a herp article I will stop here and simply stress that the habitat seen in the above and following photos is the home of many types of animals, all fighting for their survival. |
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| Sadly, this wetland that is
so important for the survival of so many animals is like an island. The
entire surrounding area is either destroyed or in the process of being
destroyed.
Here is a photo of the bulldozers that are less than
¼ mile from this very swamp. They are preparing it for coal extraction! |
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I suspect that the heart of this habitat has already been
modified at some time in the past. This gives me hope, as there is the chance
that this great wetland will be able to lick its wounds and heal despite our
neglect and greed. If this proves to be the case, our kids might have the chance
to see trap jaws like these when they grow up. |
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Awesome habitat is not all that the daylight revealed and
coal mining is not the only threat to the herpetofauna of this area.
Obviously there are bridges across the swamp, and large quantities of shell casings litter every single one. The remains of turtles and other reptiles can be found all around. On one trip to the swamp Phil and I hoped to find diamondback water snakes. We found none but did catch a cottonmouth. We took it to a safe location off the side of the road to photograph it when we began to notice a red car driving past us over and over again. |
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Phil finished up with his camera and had taken the hook from me so that I could get some pictures when up pulls the red car and out jumps a modern-day gun-slinging hero. As he quickly jumped from his car he strapped on his holster and dashed to our rescue. It soon became apparent that I was not going to be able to get photos of the snake. It was quite a let down as we had driven 3 hours to the location and faced a three hour return. |
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| It was not safe to
photograph with this gun-toting idiot nearby though. He informed us that we
were about to get killed by a moccasin and we calmly informed him that we
knew what we were dealing with and that we were still not concerned about
being killed. He looked at us as if we were totally insane and told us that
when we finished he was going to shoot the snake.
That is when my camera was put away and I began to
move the snake to a safe location. He noticed my plan and I had to resort to
throwing the snake as far back into a wooded area as I could. He whipped out
his pistol and headed for the nearest bridge. I beat him there and to my
dismay I noticed two adult diamondback water snakes! |
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Phil and I had driven all this way just to find this species and now that we
had, a maniac with intent to kill was ruining everything. His gun was drawn and
as Phil explained that the snakes were harmless I hurled asphalt at them to try
and get them to take cover. For once, the snakes refused to move and it took many tries to get the snakes out of there. The dumb-ass in the cowboy outfit thought that I was trying to hit the snakes with the asphalt chunks so he did not shoot, but when he figured out what I had done he was pissed! I was not to happy myself and it took some cool words from Phil to prevent a more serious confrontation. |
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