Best given the right of way

[zz]

Saw these on the FB page of an Australian MFC. Taken this past week. It is either a Red Belly Black or a large Eastern Brown. Both very dangerous, the Brown more so. Best admired from a distance. Been seeing these in the flesh all my life and they still cause a shiver down my spine.

[cymaz]

Good job it doesn’t have wings as well as a nasty bite

[Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator]

Looks like a real "snake in grass" situation to me!
BEB

[Frank Skilbeck]

I remember visiting a flying site in Houston Texas, lovely club house, tarmac runway etc. they had a note up reminding you that if you landed out to put the snake trousers on before venturing into the undergrowth, just rattlesnakes there though.

[KiwiKid]

Rattlers will still give you a nasty bite. Love a good snake story, mainly 'cause I have never seen one in the wild.

Interesting thing I saw about rattlers last year - significant numbers of them have actually stopped rattling! As a defence mechanism I always felt it had a fatal flaw - that of giving away your position. It also presupposes that your assailant knows that you are a badass that should be avoided. This worked fine on buffalos, but unfortunately for the poor old rattler, the assailant is now more likely to be a red neck with a '45. So, as evolution would have it, the rattlers that kept their rattle stowed tended to prosper and maybe the trait will get passed down through generations.

I have seen comment on some California slope threads where they go on a snake hunt, beating the grass around their launch site before flying. I guess it's a bit un-nerving when you have your hands full, so to speak, and someone yells SNAKE! In the States they also have these nasty things called tics and chiggers. Evil little beasties that live in grasses and can give a bite that can get infected and really turn nasty.

On an American slope site one day, I remember reading this post where a chap was relating how a rattler had turned up on their slope and, quite matter of factly, he said "So I went to my car, got my gun and shot the varmint" - gotta love 'em.

Edited By KiwiKid on 07/02/2018 10:04:43

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Makes me rather glad that we only have the wind, rain and low cloudbase to contend with!

...although I did have a nasty moment or two when I saw a 2 inch eyeball staring at me from a nettle patch in the woods while searching for someone's model

- not sure who was more nervous, the deer who it belonged to or me before I realised what it was...

[J D 8]

Plenty Adders around where I live,nowhere near as nasty as those above.Our daft staffi dog got bit [daft coz it got bit twice by the same snake] and its head swelled up to the size of a football. She did recover with help from the vet.

Last year saw a buzzard fly over with a live adder still wriggling in its tallons.

[Luther Oswalt]

Once in a US Hunting and Fishing Magazine I read where a Texas Doctor, who has treated 100's of Rattle Snake bites in his long career said, not one of the snake bite victims had heard a rattle! Every year on my farm in Alabama many very large and very mean snakes are killed. Not only do we have several different kind of Rattlers we also have Copper Heads and Cotton Mouths and they do get large and are very dangerous! Down here in Florida in addition to the ones mention above we also have the deadly Coral Snake whose venom attacks the nervous system. They do not have fangs and must chew your skin for the venom to enter your body. Forty Five seconds later you are dead. We have killed a number of these on our property.

Leo

[The Wright Stuff]

So, was it a tail-dragger or a belly-landing?

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

We get snakes on our patch.

[Don Fry]

Grass snake is very tasty. Got bitten by an adder, being stupid, as a kid. Me not adder. Very painful, not to be repeated.

But that's a nasty snake what caused a Tundra to stall in on its nose.

[zz]

Was in Arizona last June and saw a Rattler. It was in a caged box, a real bad looking thing and he/she wasn't rattling.

Interesting reading responses. Just goes to show where ever in the world, when out and about, be alert and watch for these nasties.

No mention of the most dangerous of all - the one eyed trouser snake. Ahh, perhaps it's best not to go there.

[michael kuss]

check this one out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqVgB7CS6no

[Tom Thomas]

Bitten by an Adder when I was about 12, threw up green stuff and felt rough for a least a week.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Jon Laughton]

The original posting made me look twice to confirm it wasn't our beloved Chairman!

[Tim Flyer]

Also Ticks are also common in many parts of the UK especially where deer are about. Lyme disease from ticks is also a not that uncommon here so people who use the countryside need to be aware. There can be lots of Ticks in long grass /bracken so long trousers are a very sensible precaution.

Edited By Timothy Harris 1 on 09/02/2018 12:30:26

Edited By Timothy Harris 1 on 09/02/2018 12:30:52

[John Privett]

Posted by Martin Harris on 07/02/2018 10:48:02:

Makes me rather glad that we only have the wind, rain and low cloudbase to contend with!

I was about to say much the same thing Martin!

I'm not sure if I've been lucky or unlucky, but in all my (almost) 60 years I've never seen a snake in the wild in the UK. And even on two trips to Oz (5 weeks in total) the most dangerous of their huge collection of "out to kill you" wildlife that I saw were a few bad-tempered kangaroos.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Snakes are very affable in Yorkshire, you often hear "ow do lad" from the long grass.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[extra slim]

Only snakes I like are the pitts python and the sig cobra!!.... taxi !!!

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Posted by John Privett on 09/02/2018 22:05:28:

Posted by Martin Harris on 07/02/2018 10:48:02:

Makes me rather glad that we only have the wind, rain and low cloudbase to contend with!

 

I was about to say much the same thing Martin!

I'm not sure if I've been lucky or unlucky, but in all my (almost) 60 years I've never seen a snake in the wild in the UK. And even on two trips to Oz (5 weeks in total) the most dangerous of their huge collection of "out to kill you" wildlife that I saw were a few bad-tempered kangaroos.

I've seen just two* adders in my 60ish years - both swimming across waterways. Apparently, (especially sun facing) railway embankments are a favourite habitat as adders avoid people if at all possible - and their bite isn't considered dangerous to a healthy adult anyway (although I'm reliably informed it is rather unpleasant!).

*If you don't count a snake's skeleton on a forestry path.

Edited By Martin Harris on 10/02/2018 09:48:17

[Peter Miller]

Some nasty ones in the Argentine.

One of our dogs got bitten, luckily the local medic took pity on us and used their anti snakebite serum and saved the dog.

[Ace]

"out to kill you" wildlife that I saw were a few bad-tempered kangaroos.

John P - Its the wildlife you don't see that does the damage

I am from WA and on returning after each visit to the folks, it takes me weeks to stop taping my shoes before putting them on and to this day I can't step over a log, always on nor put my hand in a dark opening unless I can see into it.

Box Jellyfish probably kill more people than Sharks, Saltwater crocodiles and all the other water nasties put together.

Seen plenty back home but closest in Uk was an Adder under my jacket while resting at a checkpoint in an Enduro at Dalby Forest/ North York Moors. Gave me an initial shock but stepped back and it ambled away.

[J D 8]

Adders usualy give fair warning in the form of a loud hiss and just want to get away.