I Yelled Snake!

The other day, I was walking on a beautiful Greenway Trail near Nashville. The trail was along side of the Cumberland River, Cheatham Lake. As I walked down the trail on a cool morning for July, I noticed a snake stretched out across the trail as my seventeen year old daughter was just passing beside the snake. I yelled Snake! Lucky for her, the snake didn't move. You know what? Teenagers are just not very aware sometimes.

Anyway, as I neared the snake, I could identify it as a poisonous snake, a Copperhead. The Copperhead was not moving and appeared to be a sleep. Checkout the snakes cool pattern.

 The trail was busy with occasional folks walking and I was worried that someone might not see the snake and get bitten.

I took a stick and encouraged the Copperhead to move on into the woods. He was stubborn and did strikeout a few times, but after further encouragement, he decided to slither on into the forest. We moved on and you cannot guess what happen next.

 

We came upon a snake hunter that had discovered two Cottonmouths. He said one was a female and the other was a male (females are smaller). I questioned him about catching snakes and he said he loved snakes and liked to take pictures of them and then release them back into nature. The snake hunter told me that this area was loaded with snakes.

The male snake was much more aggressive than the female, so the snake hunter tossed the male back into the woods.  

Actually this day turned out to be a very exciting day. We saw three wild, poisonous snakes in one day. Remember: What's in your woods, river, lake, or bay. Get out and find out, but be careful!