The Daily Bucket is a place to catch your casual observations of the natural world and turn them into a valuable resource. Whether it's the first flowers of spring or that odd bug in your basement, don't be afraid to toss your thoughts into the bucket. Check here for a more complete description.
After two weeks of absence, I didn't have the gall to call this post a Daily Bucket. Besides, enhydra lutris, bwren, belinda ridgewood and others have been carrying on the series quite well. Thank goodness.
But I did have a few things to report from the outside world today.
First off, after three weeks in my woods, I hiked down to the trap cam I installed near the creek and removed the memory, eager to see what had passed by the lens. I carted the card back up to my computer and found several shots of the woods, some of them taken in day, some of them taken at night using the camera's IR feature. Unfortunately, the only one that clearly had anything other than trees was this one.
the strangest animal in the woods
I think it's time to move the camera to a new location.
While outside today, I decided to move a stack of pallets that had served as a base for some bricks that arrived a couple of years ago. Made from untreated pine, the pallets were doing a pretty good job of decaying into the leaf litter, they were just doing it too close to the house, so I decided to drag them up the way where they would be screened by a copse of little cedars. I was on the watch for poison ivy (and finding plenty), so I wasn't really focused on much else, but as I was moving the last of the pallets I felt something like a pair of hard pecks against my left leg. I kept walking, but a few seconds later a definite feeling of heat set in. Once I had the last pallet on the heap with the rest, I peeled up my pants leg.
Sure enough, there they were -- two pairs of little puncture wounds already surrounded by an area of reddening skin. I walked back through the weeds to the brown patch where the pallets had been, but I saw no sign of the culprit. Still, the shape of the bites left little doubt that they had been delivered by a pit viper of some sort. The size of the bites -- less than 1/2" between the fang marks -- revealed that the source was a pretty small snake. Probably a snake born last year. There are five species of poisonous snake in the area, all of whom were candidates for the marks. But there is one that is the best candidate.
The Osage Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix phaeogaster) is the most common poisonous snake in the area, and accounts for most reported snake bites. This is both because a startled copperhead often reflexively strikes, and because it's a pretty little snake that's often picked up by people who mistake it for a harmless member of the Natrix group. Fortunately for me, copperhead bites are generally not serious. Those few deaths that result are generally children bitten by multiple snakes. Their venom is hemolytic, causing red cells to burst, which matched the bleeding and redness I could see around the bites.
It's possible to use a generalized antivenin against copperhead bites, but it's 1) expensive, 2) painful, and 3) sometimes causes most problems than it solves. Besides, this is the third time I've been bitten by a copperhead. I was nipped by a tiny baby copperhead when I was eight -- one of several young snakes whose nest I dug into while building a "foxhole" at the end of my street. In college, I got a bite in the traditional way; I made a grab for a poorly seen reptile trying to escape under a log. At the time, I was selling snakes to a company called Midwest Reptile Supply which used the poisonous varieties for making antivenin. What I got on that occasion was a solid, painful bite into the meat of my hand between thumb and forefinger.
But in every case, the initial pain of the bite was the worst symptom, and that seems to be the case this time. It's been a couple of hours now, and the inflamed areas have turned to a pair of silver-dollar sized areas flecked with red. They don't hurt, and I expect to recover without so much as a dose of antihistamine.
Please note: your snake bite experience may vary. If bitten, remember that antivenin is generally effective only if used within an hour of the bite. It could be that I have little reaction to copperhead venom. It could also be that the snakes I've encountered at the fang end didn't think I was worth wasting poison on. They have that control.
In any case, before you go to shift a rotting log, pile of bricks, or anything else that's been sitting around for a long time, please take time to inspect the situation carefully.
The woods at my place have more or less reached their end-state for the year. The leaves will get a bit darker as summer comes on, and may develop a dusty-grey tone in the heat of August, but this is about as thick as things are going to get. So one last time, here's the kitchen window parade.
January 2011
March 2011
9 April 2011
16 April 2011
23 April 2011
21 May 2011
And in case anyone is interested in this year's growth of the Great Abomination, here's a shot of some Vivax bamboo in front of a white oak.
Bamboo and Oak
The bamboo is about 30-35' tall in this little grove, the tree behind them about 60'. This year's shoots are those thin white lines shooting up with no leaves yet attached. Once the little leaves appear, the growth of the shoots will stop, and these shoots are the only ones that will appear this year. The closest bamboo is actually about 5' in front of the tree (which is across the line on a neighbor's property), but the presence of the bamboo seems to have strangled out a series of massive grape vines that were previously smothering the tree. So for the moment, the bamboo may actually be saving the tree... but I doubt that's true long term.
I'm getting my mind right for the Great Bamboo Slaughter some time this summer.
Today's observations come from these locations
Share your own observations in comments, and I'll add a marker to the map. Please give a city and state (as close as you feel comfortable in providing). Green pins for observations mostly about plants, brown for animals, and blue for weather or other inorganic items. The letter at the center of each pin will be the first letter of the user who provides the data.