14R 

I had no other way to share these pictures unless creating it's own new thread...

Have a great weekend all of you,

14R

LittlePixel

Woo!

jur

Looks poisonous, some sort of adder, or a rattler sans rattles?

CHenry

Water Moccasin. Very nasty envenomation and can be aggressive.

14R 

I am not a snake expert, but I do have access to the internet

Yes, it is a rattler sans rattle. A type of moccasin known as Cottonmouth snake. I've seen more than 3 on this trail, they always run away but CHenry is correct, they are known as aggressive snakes.

CHenry

They live mostly in or very near swampy areas and open water. This one pictured has very similar appearance to a related pit viper, the Copperhead, which is also found in Florida. They are occasional yard invaders, especially on waterside properties. Eastern Diamondback rattlesnakes, another large and venomous viper, occasionally wind up in residential areas in Florida. Price of development, I suppose, with habitat encroachment.

When I was living in southwest Florida, there were a few reports of people being bitten by pygmy rattlers--small and nasty buggers--while sorting potted plants at outdoor store nurseries.

EvilV

Ugly!

James H Haury

I run into deer all the time ,sometimes a Red fox or a wolf? Anyway whatever the last one is it is bigger than a fox and preys on deer.

wrafl

That looks mean and vicious. Glad we don't have them up here. Saw a snake once on the trail but I suspect it was the non venomous garden variety. Living in Florida, you sure to encounter wildlife of all kinds.

bookishboy

Coyote? Not a nature expert, but I've seen a few out in the wild, and I recall them looking like either large foxes or small dogs..... not quite like either, but somewhere in-between the two.

Speedo

In Chicago almost certainly a coyote.

They are getting to be almost universal. We have them in our neighborhood in the Boston suburbs. They seem to have displaced the foxes.

Speedo

Speedo

In answer to the original question:

Black Flies. Uuuugh!

Oh, and suicidal chipmunks. They wait on the side of the road and dash out at my wheels as I pass. I have no idea why.

Speedo

juggleandhope

What's mean and vicious are the developers coming and wiping out all the homes of all the animals and plants who have been living there. And then the snowbirds buying up the houses with extra big air conditioners and the government adding yet more lanes to the interstate for "hurricane evacuation".

I saw a pygmy rattler once on a trail in Myakka state park and it was as polite as anyone I've ever met.

Meanest things I see riding my folder always have four tires and some nature-hating wanna-be alien inside communicating with its electronic devices. And there are a million of them where I live now, and I tell you that's scary.

jur

+1 on 4-tyred ugliness

Interesting the comments on that snake; I see beauty.

CHenry

When I lived in Florida, I would occasionally find a ribbon snake or gecko had crawled into the house. Corn snakes would sometimes sun themselves on the walk. It was reassuring that all the development hadn't made the place utterly inhospitable (and don't take that as any endorsement of Florida development; the contrary, in fact).

This water moccasin is a beautiful animal, even though it is best left alone.

cooker

coyote?


oops, covered

EvilV

LOL - yes we get those critters here too. Much worse than snakes.

maranen

What an awesum animal! Great pictures!
Let me tell about my encounter with a snake, even though there is no folding-bike involved. It happened in Sweden years ago. There were four of us on a boat. We were coming ashore of a rented cottage – lake Mälaren I think. On the dock there were four pares of rubber boots waiting for us. I was the last one to put on the boots. When I stuck my foot in the second boot, it felt very tight and there was movement under my sole. I took off the boot and looked inside – there was a snake curled in a coil. I upended the boot and dropped the snake in the lake – it swam happily away. I wasn’t frightened and took it as a good sign. I think it wasn’t a poisonous snake.

EvilV

Great story.

I'll follow your example and tell of a weird encounter of a non-bicycling kind. A few years ago, I was fishing off the Isle of Skye in my boat with one of my sons. We were trying for mackerel with hooked feathers as lures. Suddenly, I felt an immense pull and thought, 'Wow - this one is big and it ain't a mackerel'. The pull was so heavy that I began to suspect that I'd hooked up on the loch bottom and that I was just pulling my boat as I tried to wind in. After a long time of pulling and winding, to my absolute horror, up came a large seal with my line going right to its face. I was at once shocked and concerned. How was I going to free the thing? It certainly looked pretty upset and had a fine set of large teeth. Now, I'm sure that wildlife experts know how to handle a seal close up, but I don't and I was damned if I, clad in shirts and sandals was going to wind that seal right up to the 14 foot dinghy and try to extract a hook from it's face, so I got my boy to unsheathe a knife and as I got the large angry animal to about six feet away, I got him to cut the line. That was as near as I dared bring the thrashing mass of angry blubber and teeth.

I hope it did OK. I had a new, shiny, lead torpedo shaped fishing weight on the line, and I suppose the seal thought it was a fish and got too close fouling itself on one of the hooks. I always felt bad about that business, but what was I to do. I'd never have expected that in a million years.

Polaris43

+1 on the whole post

kgibbs51

There have been a lot of coyotes coming down into Chicago in the last 5 years. They actually travel either down the river banks or the bike trails so I'm not surprised people see them. I guess they are really causing problems for people who tie up their little toy dogs in their backyards.

A few years ago one made in into the Loop (central business district for those not in the know) and hid under a taxi until animal control arrived. Heck just a few months ago one came downtown and walked right into a sandwich place.

rhm

Speaking of wildlife, as opposed to roadkill (which I see all the time too)....

I haven't literally run into anything in a while, but I ran into a squirrel once, before my folding bike days, and another time a squirrel ran through the spokes of my front wheel,which tossed him up into the path of my pedalling foot... Biff! he went flying; naturally, when he landed, he decided it was a dangerous place to be, so he turned around and went back.... It all happened so fast it was hard to figure out what had happened; I wish I had THAT on video! These days I see a fair number of deer, woodchucks, rabbits, ubiquitous squirrels, and an occasional fox; and there's some critter I see swimming in the canal, either a muskrat or a beaver (it's the size of a beaver, but someone told me it's a muskrat; I just don't know. Do woodchucks swim much?).

The geese are the real problem. They get very protective in the late Spring, and I've been attacked a couple times. Usually they go up in the air and dive bomb at you, but one time the P/O'd goose ran right into the side of my bike, hitting me somewhere near the knee. Good thing he didn't put his head through the spokes! One time I scared a goose so bad he decided to hide --under the water! Made quite a splash, and held his breath surprisingly long. Other birds I see... cormorants, mallards and other ducks, kingfishers, blue heron, occasional green heron, snowy egret, and possibly a turkey or two (they're shy); lots of little birds, usually not identifiable at speed, except for the bluejays and goldfinches. And sometimes an escaped guinea hen.

Once, about two years ago, I barely missed a squirrel, which ran out from under a parked car and crossed the road just in front of me, chased by a mockingbird, which flew out from under the same parked car and proceeded to fly right through my front wheel, emerging unharmed to continue to pester the squirrel. Okay, you will say, that's impossible; and maybe you are right; but that's what I saw, so that's what I report.

This is on a 6.5 mile ride from (suburban) Lawrenceville NJ to (suburban) Hamilton NJ train station; all the good stuff is along the Delaware and Raritan canal, just a hundred yards from a busy highway, but very rural in feel.

shortbus901

My fiance will never ride Flatwoods again if she sees these pictures

I've lived my whole life (29 years) in FL and regularly go camping, hiking, kayaking, MTB'ing etc. I've only seen maybe 5 moccasins in my life (all in or near water). Never seen a rattler down here and our only other poisonous snake is the coral snake (never seen one) which pretty much has to sit and gnaw on you for awhile to actually get any venom in (good thing cause they are extremely poisonous!). We do have Copperheads but they are mostly in the extreme NW part of the Panhandle. The crazy people down here are way more dangerous than the wildlife

MequonJim

Excellent post rhm! Thank you.

wrafl

Had my share of living in Florida and know exactly what you meant. My last visit in 03 down on Ft. Lauderdale surprised me when I drove northbound on I-95 and saw that there were no more open spaces along it's length as it had been developed completely. Glad to leave that area as I can imagine the congestion right now. West of 441 has now been developed too.