Back in July I was reading up on Mt Elden and this little sweetie popped out from under a rock and chilled by me for a bit
People (not you) are incredibly fucking stupid. I’d have to look at range maps, but this is Nerodia sp. likely fasciata, your run of the mill banded water snake.
Guy has a pair of them. WC in the Houston area. Believe he’s a snake removal guy, but I could be wrong. Based on his socials, he seems like one of the good guys.
First ones I've seen on socials. He could prob make a killing breeding them and selling them to hobbyists since they're pretty new.
My algorithm is feeding me snake videos on facebook, and I find them fascinating and terrifying. I'm not sure what it is about king cobras, but I look at them and think they're demons. Don't feel that way about any other snakes.
I’m kinda obsessed with these crazy people so can give you many IG accounts @chrisweeet will blow your fucking mind. Nothing is fake, dude is a king cobra whisperer. He is a breeder though and not typically a good thing Animal influencer accounts is a tricky business, think I’ve learned to mostly see through the bullshit but who knows
Owsley Not a snake, but need some help. This weekend I was out in the back yard when I heard an extremely loud buzzing. I thought somebody was trying to land a helicopter it was so loud. Naturally I look up to locate the helicopter and i see a swarm of insects 60 feet up in my backyard tree around what looks like a hornets nest but it was hard to tell. 1000's of bugs are swarming this nest up in the tree. It was so high up i couldn't identify what kind of insects it was but it looked like a cloud it was so thick. Scared the shit out of me. An hour later all was calm, and has been calm since. You wouldn't even know there was a nest up there now. I got to think given the size of the size of the swarm this has been here awhile and I just got alerted to it due to the scary ass swarm that was taking place. Should I: 1. Leave it alone? 2. Try to kill the nest? 3. Cut this massive oak down and burn the tree in situ? 4. Sell the house and let the new owners deal with the murderous swarm?
Honestly not sure, I always thought live oak, but google has me second guessing. The nest is out on a limb not in the tree body.
I couldn't tell if the nest was conical because it is so high up and masked by leaves, but it looks to my dumb ass eye like a wasp nest.
If the "nest" isn't still there, it was a swarm of honeybees. They make all kinds of shapes when they coagulate. Can look like something solid but just be a mass of them. It's definitely that time of year. Here's a Pic of a small swarm we caught Sunday.
Funshot Residue Damn I think that's what it was. Went and looked last night and there was nothing there that I could tell. No sign of a nest. Never seen a honeybee swarm, scary shit. Lasted maybe 30 mins and then it was gone.
If it makes you feel better, they're very docile when they're a swarm and the majority can't even physically sting even if they wanted to. Because they're so fat on honey they took from the hive that they can't bend their abdomen. I've never been stung or even had one attempt to sting me when collecting a swarm.
Dramatic looking but very little to be scared of. Typically when honeybees swarm they know several weeks in advance that they are leaving. They gorge themselves on the honey supply to take to their new home. Not that they won't sting you, but most are pretty fat and happy. The activity (flying) is scout bees looking for a new place. Crazy/random/nature is awesome fact: one of the ways bees communicate (like hey I found us a new spot) is by dancing, or a similar set of movements. Sadly I don't have video of this. billdozer is our resident bee expert and has helped me with our budding apiary.
got to Saguaro NP at 5:30 this morning and left about 30 mins ago. Saw zero snakes. Will try again tomorrow
There have been some killer birds (elegant trogons) hanging out in Madera Canyon the past few weeks if you need a detour.