Saturday, May 28, 2016

Terror on the eastern plains

While searching for small birdies at the derelict Upper Queens Reservoir State Wildlife Area in Colorado a few weeks ago,  my poor buddy chose to use the restroom facilities, a vault toilet.  Unbeknownst to her, long neglected toilets often serve as home to many things that slither.  As she made her way across the grass, a loud noise, kind of like the air escaping from a spray can, caused her to jump, turn, and run all in one smooth motion.  Being the kind of clueless friend I am, I continued to stare through my binoculars at birds, assuming her soda can had exploded.

This, however, is who she encountered.  A four foot Prairie Rattler, who had happily made a home under the vault toilet.  Yikes - talk about getting the crap scared out of yah.
Here it is slithering back to the safety of it's toilet home. Below is just its rattle, which is quite large


 
 After that scary experience, we continued to bird.  We ran across many deserted houses that looked like they had bodies under the floor boards. Being too chicken shit to investigate and not wanting to be arrested for trespassing, we settled for a few pictures.


The highlight, however, came later that evening, when this magnificent creature crossed our path.  Such a beauty!  If it doesn't already have a name, I think it should be called Lady M!




16 comments:

  1. That's a pretty rattlesnake! Glad he made it back to his toilet home. And spider is gorgeous as well.

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    1. Yes and the tarantula made it across the road, so all is well with the creepy crawlies.

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    2. Good good. Glad to hear no creepy crawlies were harmed.

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  2. When I saw the picture of the rattler and the story of your friend headed to the pit toilet, I thought this was going to be a story of "Terror on the SOUTHERN Plains" if you get my drift. I would have totally explored those abandoned houses, bodies or no bodies.

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    1. Eastern Colorado is a little rural to say the least. I think we would have been trespassing on private property if we explored those houses. Lots of good historic properties here in Colorado - sometime I will take pictures for you!

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  3. I can only imagine how horrifying it would be to hear that rattle AFTER you'd already pulled down your drawers and perched yourself over the facilities. ;)

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    1. Ha - coming from deep with the bowels of the vault toilet - terrifying!

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    2. LOL except the drawers were not dropped yet.

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  4. I didn't know you were a bird watcher - but a 'creep-and-crawlies' searcher makes complete sense ;)

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    1. Yes I am quite an obsessive bird watcher but that is another blog entirely.

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  5. My snake encounter was non poisonous ... it did chew on my hand for several minutes... and a feral kitten that burst into the house last night is still hiding behind me... under the Chest-of-drawers... Tuna still untouched...
    was just dropping by to wish a happy 4th of July to you and yours.

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    1. Hello Stacey! My fourth was great! How about yours? I guess you've got a cat now!

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    2. No, we had to pull apart that side of the living room...beneath the chest-of-drawer, found several things that it had chewed... But, no cat... got to looking around, and found where it had pushed loose the screen of the front door.

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    3. Goodness - so after all that, it escaped.

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