Worst Trip Report Ever

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Noah M
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Joined: November 3rd, 2012, 7:00 pm
Location: Gainesville, FL
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Worst Trip Report Ever

Post by Noah M »

I'm calling this "The Curse of the Short-tail". It is like that snake sucked up all of the luck for finding and photographing other snakes.

I've been hunting Heterodon for the past few weeks, and unfortunately I don't have any photos of them to share. A few members on this board were very generous in helping me, so Friday morning and this morning (Saturday) I woke up bright and early at 6:30am and tried a few new areas. Of course, I have almost nothing to share.

Today in particular was rather bad. The first thing I saw was this.

Image

Another 45 minutes passed with nothing, and then this little guy.

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And then 2 hours of nothing, when I saw a little dark snake with perhaps a stripe dart off the road before I could photograph it. The Curse of the Short-tail strike one.

Another 30 minutes or so of nothing. As I was about to give up and head home, I almost ran over a bear. A mamma bear and 2 cubs bolted out in front of me. I was doing maybe 25 mph. A third cub, farther behind mom and its siblings, ran up to the road, and then did an abrubt 180, which is a good thing because it might have met my car otherwise. I stopped, backed up, and turned off the car. I could hear the baby calling to its mom. I thought I recorded it, at least the audio, but The Curse of the Short-Tail stuck again and I have no evidence of this occurrence. I thought, okay, well, the mom and the baby are going to reunite at some point. So I turned off the car and sat, and sat. I could hear the baby calling, and then everything went silent. I had my camera poised, and then in a flash the baby darted across the road, apparently faster than my trigger finger. The Curse of the Short-tail strikes for a 3rd time!

I was tired, it was growing warm, the prospects of finding Heterdon was dwindling, so I started to head home. Not 5 minutes after hitting pavement a 2-3 ft coachwhip darted off the road. Of course, no photo of this either. Curse of the Short-tail stike four.

It was pavement all of the way back. I did find a DOR Pygmy Rattler, so I knew live ones may be around. About 30 minutes later, sure enough, I roll up on a beautiful Pygmy Rattler just sitting in the road. I throw the car into park, hop out and before I can even fire off a shot it darts for under my car! I ran to the other side of my car thinking it would come out over there, but no snake! I looked under the car, around in the grass, and nothing. It just vanished! Curse of the Short-tail strike 5!

I have never had so many amazing photo opportunities fail so miserably in one trip. I mean, the hatching tortoise is cute, but for being out and about from about 7am until 1pm, this is absolutely terrible.

Lastly, despite seeing this same hawk half a dozen times, this is the best pic I could get of it. Is this the Curse of the Short-tail or just a hawk that likes messing with photographers?

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Better luck next time eh? If you think you can break the Curse of the Short-tail, PM me and I'll ride along with you next weekend, paying my fair share of transportation costs. I would look forward to anybody who takes on the challenge at least partly because my little Civic doesn't seem to handle soft sandy roads with much grace.
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