Welcome to the Visitor's Center at Brazos Bend State Park. That's me on a trail (03/29/2004). As I get more pictures, these pages expand. I've gotten enough images of snakes to collect them here.
Here are my other Brazos Bend
and/or critter pages:
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OR, FOR OTHER ANIMALS:
Alligators
at Brazos Bend State Park Introduction
Critters at Brazos
Bend State Park Page 1
Snakes-nonvenomous
1-------------------------------------------
Critters
at Brazos Bend State Park Page 3
Snakes-nonvenomous
2-------------------------------------------------Insects,
non-toxic
Snakes-nonvenomous
3------------------------------------------------Spiders
Snakes-venomous------------------------------------------------------Mammals
Birds-Waders----Birds-Raptors---------------------------------
Lizards!--Turtles!
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Welcome
to the Visitor's Center at Brazos Bend State Park. That's me on a trail
(03/29/2004). As I get more pictures, these pages expand. I've gotten enough
images of snakes to collect them here.
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SNAKE 1-------------------
GREEN
SNAKE 2---------------
GREEN
SNAKE 3----------------
GREEN
SNAKE 4 -----------GREEN
SNAKE 5
January
10, 2002 I had gone out to clear away
some vegetation in front of one of the park benches on Hale Lake. As I
stepped down off the trail, I looked down and saw this Smooth Green Snake
lying on the ground. It was quite cool outside, and the snake wasn't moving
very quickly. I'd cleared some of this area the weekend before, and
this bank was now exposed to the sun. I suppose that's why the snake showed
up there. The ONLY reason I picked this snake up was to move it away from
where I'd be cutting. It is not normal procedure for us to catch park animals.
MUD SNAKE 10/14/2001 The mud snake is especially noteworthy since most of the time we see them dead alongside the trails. Alligators have been blamed for this, and sometimes some of the wading birds. Whatever the reason for their death, the snakes are then left alone, and not eaten. (See MUD SNAKE, below)
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MUD SNAKE
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June 23, 2002 Not too long after I'd taken a series of photos of the Golden Silk Spider, a park visitor pointed out a snake on the opposite side of the trail. This looks to me like a Broadbanded Water Snake, but a very nice one. It moved slowly along the trail, and I followed it for about 45 minutes, hoping to keep it from being run over by a bicycle if it tried to cross the trail. Every now and then, it would stop, and raise its head about 5 inches above the ground (see WHAT'S UP?, below). Then it would move further along the trail, sometimes coming up to it (see the flv video clip 416kb ), and then moving away. Then,
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WHAT'S UP?
GET OFF OF MY SPOT!
RIBBON SNAKE
TEXAS RAT SNAKE
Along
the way, something quite interesting happened. To my surprise, a
Ribbon Snake moved out of a clump of grass as the Broadbanded moved by.
This Ribbon Snake watched the larger water snake move by for a few seconds,
then slowly crept towards it (see GET OFF OF MY SPOT, above click here
for a bigger picture. Take a close look at the image. The dark mass
in front of the ribbon snake is the water snake passing by.) It suddenly
struck at the body of the the water snake! It did this once, then moved
back, and moved out from its hiding spot( see RIBBON SNAKE, above).
I followed the water snake a few steps, then a group of park visitors came
by, and I stood still, between the two snakes, and pointed them out.
The water snake moved on, and the ribbon snake went back under the grass.
Once the water snake got further away from me, it did cross the
trail.
June
30, 2002 It had been raining all weekend.
Not steadily, but enough to make things wet and the air close and sticky.
I witnessed some alligator behavior (recorded elsewhere).
The
day continued , and I'd logged my time, and was leaving the Vistor's Center
(I was about 10 steps out the door!) when I saw this snake. (see Texas
Rat Snake, above). It was just curled up, as shown, right there in
front of the bicycle racks. It wasn't very long for a rat snake; maybe
about 2 feet long. I guess there just aren't any *bad* days to see
things at Brazos Bend State Park.
July
7, 2002 Happy 4th of July Weekend! I
was able to go to the park 3 times over the last 4 days. Some things involving
spiders occurred, and the notes have moved to another page.
I'll
just mention one more thing that happened this past weekend. It was pretty
amazing.
On July
5th, Donna and I visited Brazos Bend Park for a few hours. Around 11:00
am, we were on the bridge on at the beginning of the Creekfield Trail.
We noticed that the tadpoles were breaking the surface regularly to breathe.
Suddenly, Donna noticed a Broad Banded Water Snake (Natrix fasciata confluens)
coming towards us. It had just caught a tadpole, and we watched it gulp
it down. (see YUM! and GULP!, below) That's the tadpole's tail in the snake's
mouth. While I was trying to photograph this process, Donna noticed
another snake in some weeds, but it submerged. A few minutes later, as
I was following the first water snake along the shore (I'd taken about
2 steps), I noticed another snake on some branches. I think that this is
a Green Water Snake (Natrix cyclopian cyclopian). (see Green Water Snake,
below.) I took some pictures of this snake, and slowly moved to the side
to get a better view (another few steps). Then, I moved back to try to
find the first Broad Banded Water Snake, when a
third snake appeared
from the grass right in front of me! I believe
this snake is a Yellow
Bellied Water Snake (Natrix erythrogaster flavigaster) (see Yellow Bellied
below). We stayed around a little longer, watching this activity, which
was also made more interesting by various small alligators and turtles
moving around. We saw all this activity in just an hour! The three
different snakes appeared in an area that was about the size of a 4 x 8
piece of plywood! Is that cool or what?
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TADPOLES, YUM!
GULP!
GREEN WATER SNAKE
YELLOW-BELLIED WATER SNAKE
August
18, 2002Most
important news: WE GOT RAIN at the park! About 9 inches worth, and now
the park looks like it should. First thing in the morning, I found
out that a baby Broadbanded Water snake was found on the trail. This is
the one shown in the image below (see BABY SNAKE,below). Baby snakes
are difficult to feed, and this one will be released where it was found.
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BABY SNAKE
September
01, 2002The
image below (SMILE!) shows me taking a picture of a snake that I found
on Elm Lake trail. The snake might be a yellow belly water snake. I'm taking
this picture (and holding the snake) because it appeared to be injured
in the head. The snake was very thin, and appeared not to have eaten for
some time. A pair of park visitors took this picture with their camera
and then were nice enough to email it to me. The image below left
(HURT SNAKE) shows what I was taking a picture of while my picture
was being taken. I don't like to bother that animals at Brazos Bend
State Park unless it's absolutely necessary. This snake appeared
on the trail as I was hurrying back to the Visitor's Center. Before I saw
the snake, though, and after I'd been photographing spiders, I saw a LARGE
alligator on the trail. (See SPEED BUMP W/TEETH, below.) As I approached
him, he got up and sauntered off the trail.( See THERE HE GOES, below)
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SMILE!
HURT SNAKE SPEED BUMP WITH TEETH
THERE HE GOES
September
15, 2002WOUNDED
SNAKE UPDATE:
Previously (SEPTEMBER 1) I'd taken some
pictures of a water snake that was wounded. Just one week later (SEPTEMBER
8), I encountered the snake again. The snake was about the right size,
and was very close to the spot where I'd released the one with the badly-crushed
head before, so I'm pretty sure it was the same one. I guess it didn't
make it. (see THIN SNAKE and THIN SNAKE HEAD below.) These pictures
were taken Sept. 8, 2002.
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THIN SNAKE
THIN SNAKE HEAD
I was
somewhat surprised at how far the snake had deteriorated in just a week.
There was still some wet parts adhering to the bones, and the smell was
quite strong. This may surprise some people, but I left the snake where
it was. As much as I wanted to keep it for an interpretive display (at
least the head), I didn't have anything to store it in.
December
15, 2002
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TEXAS RAT CHECKS TEXAS RAT CLIMBS
LONG SNAKE, EH?
LONG SNAKE, EH? 640
While
I was chasing anoles and spider eggs, I was told about a large snake in
a tree a little further down the trail. Of course, I went to see it. This
turned out to be a very nice specimen of the Texas Rat Snake. When I got
there, it was watching a group of people on the trail (TEXAS RAT CHECKS,
above). Then it started moving around (TEXAS RAT CLIMBS, above). This was
a large snake. Eventually, it made its way across to another tree,
and down to the ground, where it passed by, and went under another tree
(LONG SNAKE, EH?, above-click on the 640 link to see it even larger).
Note the safety tape in the picture. Previous visitors to this site may
recognise it as the tape in the "mother alligator" pictures. It is. This
is almost exactly where I took the pictures of the mother alligator and
babies (Nov. 15).
If you'd like to know more about the park follow these links:
Brazos Bend State Park The main page.
Brazos
Bend State Park Volunteer's Page The
volunteer's main page.
Go back to my home page, Welcome
to rickubis.com
Go
back to the RICKUBISCAM page.
Go
back to the See the World
page.
