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Posted by Terry Cox on June 20, 2002 at 08:50:07:
In Reply to: Top 5 of all time... posted by Rodgers M. on June 19, 2002 at 17:14:14:
Five of my most memorable finds of all time in chronological order, because of the impact on me and my involvement in herpetology.
1. My first snake ever to find in the wild, at about ten yrs. old, a basking Butler's garter snake. I was so startled.
It looked something like this....
2. My first Eastern milksnake, found under a rock on a lakeshore in n.w. Michigan, at about age twelve. Wonderful experiences with this snake loose in the house. I actually have a picture of me holding the snake, but can't produce it at the moment.
3. A huge king cobra that was stretched across a pathway we were walking up, with its head going off one side, and its tail still coming onto the path on the other side. We were just outside of Bangkok, Thailand at a military installation. I was 19 at the time. I have vivid memories of one of our native guides running and flying through the air with his machete gleaming in the sun as he lopped off the head of that magnificent snake. He was afraid I was going to get bitten, as I ran up to see the snake close up. I probably would have...NOT!!
4. An Eastern fox snake, actually five of them, along with two melanistic garters, my brother and I caught all at the same time under a rock at Pt. Pelee Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada. He lifted the rock with his one good arm, the other was in a cast at the time, and these seven snakes were all that I could come up with from the group that was themoregulating under that rock. It was the entrance to a hibernaculum. I was in my early twenties :)
We didn't have cameras or much in photography skills at the time, but here's one of the many that we've seen since then....
5. My first ever Western green ratsnake, an adult male, caught with Gary N. in the Chiricahua Mtns, in Aug, 2000. What a memorable occasion, as I was intent on getting the opportunity to see one, but I didn't have any idea what I was doing. Gary just said, it's time to go find a greeny and we drove up in the mountains just in time to see it crossing the road. He jumped out and grabbed it, then held it up and said, "Is this what you're looking for?"
I've been hooked on AZ ever since then....
I agree with Troy that there are too many memories for just five to be significant. There are many turtles, lizards, and amphibians that were memorable finds also, but like many others, I'm most interested in snakes, thus the majorly ophidian post. Maybe we should have a narrower category next time, LOL.
TC
