Photo of a young rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox), the sixth we've found so far in 2019. It’s officially Fall, and on October 1st we caught our sixth Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) of 2019. The first rattlesnake this year was found March 27th, a month earlier than ever before. ... Read More
copperhead
It’s Going to be a Busy Rattlesnake Year
Photo: a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) next to a chicken food bowl in our chicken yard. It’s still spring with calendar summer almost two months away, but here on the farm, 2019 has already seen its third rattlesnake, a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox). The first ... Read More
Signs of Summer on the Farm
Photo above: The farm's first sign of summer, a rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) in a barrel after being captured in our yard. We know the beginning of summer on the farm not by calendar, but by nature. The clearest sign of summer is snakes. Specifically, rattlesnakes and copperheads. The ... Read More
A Weird Short Ecotour Offer
Photo: A young copperhead in our yard. Photo by Carl Clapsaddle. For three years now I’ve been toying with offering an ecotourism venture at our farm during our copperhead season. This evening cinched the idea for me. Susie and I got home from our volunteer fire department meeting (yes, on ... Read More
Creepy Copper the Copperhead Snake
Photo: Creepy Copper, the copperhead snake, swallowing a leopard frog while coiled up at the base of a hackberry tree. For the past few weeks, a copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix laticinctus), has been coiling up in the late afternoon under a sugar hackberry tree (Celtis laevigata) that grows a ... Read More
Copperhead Eating Lizard
Photo: by Ky Harkey of a copperhead feasting on a green anole lizard. About this time of the year our copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix) switch from cruising around in the evening and early night for emerging cicadas and June bugs to climbing into shrubs to feed on green anoles (Anolis ... Read More
Copperhead Bites Sadie
Photo: Sadie on sofa about a half hour after being bitten by a copperhead. I hadn’t planned on blogging about copperheads any more for at least a year, but Sadie our son’s family’s rescue pit bull was bitten, so here goes copperheads again. In previous blogs I’d explained that copperheads ... Read More
Copperhead Eating a Cicada
The photo shows a copperhead with a cicada nymph in its mouth. This time of the year at the farm cicada nymphs are emerging at dusk from ground to ascend into a shrub, tree, or other object where they eclose into winged adults. This typically happens from June 1st to about July 15th. They and ... Read More
Copperhead Hunting a Cicada
The photo shows a copperhead stretching for cicada that is just out of its reach. During July and August each year copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix) flock to our yard to harvest emerging cicadas and June bugs. Both of these insects live underground for a year to several years as grubs. When ... Read More
Maya’s Copperhead Bite Update
The photo shows Maya's copperhead bite a couple days after it occurred. Maya, one of our German Shepherds was recently bitten by a copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix (see my blog: http://goliadfarms.com/mayas-copperhead-bite/), which are very active at this time of the year. Fortunately, ... Read More