Alternative use for lunge whip.......
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Re: Alternative use for lunge whip.......
Aww, I love barn swallows and am always sad when they die. Luckily they breed prolifically and will often raise several nests full per season. One particularly hot week in a barn I was leasing with a metal roof, all the tiny babies cooked. :(
Great photo of the snake, btw.
Re: Alternative use for lunge whip.......
Mother nature can be cruel sometimes - but there has to be a balance of nature, so you can't blame the snake for doing what is natural. Rat snakes frequently go after bird nests even when they are "inaccessable" to other preditors.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54078117@N…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Re: Alternative use for lunge whip.......
I have to admit I am a snake lover....I am quite good at handling them too, although they are pretty well deaf and their eyesight is not fantastic they can smell fear and other emotions through their tongues and I don't know why but they just do not scare me, I know we don't have anything more poisonous than a Viper here but I have had exposure to some more poisonous snake through my life in various ways!!
I am pretty sure the swallows will lay again, it is still early....maybe you could put a ring just below the nest, you know like you do on the shaft of a bird table???
It would probably stop this happening again.
It's sad, I know, but it is nature.
The photos are great but I would [i]pay[/i] to see a picture of your OH roused by a gunshot!!! :rofl
Re: Alternative use for lunge whip.......
I also had a snake encounter recently... although I didn't get nearly as good a picture as you did ;)
[img]http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd21…]
I came within a yard of stepping right on this rattlesnake. I was hiking off-trail in knee-high grass following a fence line, and apparently so was the snake. It was slowly slithering along the fence in the same direction I was, which was fortunate, because if it hadn't been moving there's no way in hell I'd have seen it, and that would have just totally ruined my day (nearest people were 3 miles' hike away through a closed-for-the-season area and the nearest civilization was 50 miles beyond that). I backed off and started carefully trying to take a picture, at which point it stopped moving and started rattling and we booked it the hell out of there.
This all happened here:
35° 8'32.95"N 119°51'45.20"W
Re: Alternative use for lunge whip.......
[quote="Monsterpony"]What kind of snake was it?[/quote]
Texas rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta lindheimeri) Or so I was told.
He should have stuck with the obsoleta part in his name. As far as I am concerned. :laugh1
[quote="rabbitsfizz"]I am pretty sure the swallows will lay again, it is still early....maybe you could put a ring just below the nest, you know like you do on the shaft of a bird table??? It would probably stop this happening again.
It's sad, I know, but it is nature.
The photos are great but I would [i]pay[/i] to see a picture of your OH roused by a gunshot!!! :rofl[/quote]
I am either going to have to remove the nest (no attempts to re-occupy yet) or come up with a little help, yes. I think Critter is right: rat snakes seem to be able to scale a straight wall. Due to a d shaped cross section they are said to possess :o I'd best get a ring for the eastern blue bird family out back, or they will be next. :sad
OH would wake up shooting, I fear. The pic would have to be found on my camera by the local police investigating my sudden violent demise.
:lol:
[quote="nerd"]It was slowly slithering along the fence in the same direction I was, which was fortunate, because if it hadn't been moving there's no way in hell I'd have seen it, and that would have just totally ruined my day (nearest people were 3 miles' hike away through a closed-for-the-season area and the nearest civilization was 50 miles beyond that). I backed off and started carefully trying to take a picture, at which point it stopped moving and started rattling and we booked it the hell out of there.
This all happened here:
35° 8'32.95"N 119°51'45.20"W[/quote]
:shock: Nerd! Good Lord!
The exact location would have helped your local SAR group or MP who could have come after your lifeless body. :cry: Yikes!
Re: Alternative use for lunge whip.......
Are your "Barn Swallows" what we call Swifts or House Martins??
Or are they another form of Swallow altogether??
[img]http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/house%20m…]
House Martins...
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c…]
Swifts.
I have House Martins in my stables at the moment, they arrived yesterday, and are quite late.
I never get Swallows, Swifts and House Martins together, only one species at a time!!!
I also have a Yaffle, some Little Owls, a Red Kite, some Buzzards, a Cormorant, Swans, Coots, Moorhens, Mallards, Chaffinches Robins and Pied Wagtails.
And the bloody Grey Squiggles...I had one pregnant female die in my arms (well, a bucket actually, ) today and make me guilty as all got out because I think she ate some of the poison I put down for the rats...I hate doing that at all, certainly did not mean to kill a tree rat, they are a nuisance but not a danger.
Oh and Grey Herons, I have them too.
And Wrens.
Re: Alternative use for lunge whip.......
I cannot speak for the swallows that Sara was talking about, but the raided nest above mu door belonged to northern ( :laugh1 ) rough winged's. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Nort…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
We *can* have (purlpe) martins. Everyone around is trying to attract those, not many of us successful. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Purp…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And anyway. My martin house is leased out to eastern bluebirds. :lol:
I also house chimney swifts. In my chimney. :roll:
Plus duck, egrets, great blue herons and the much prettier little blues, hawks, owls, buzzards, and the usual array of cardinals, titmouses, woodpeckers, chicadees, bluebirds, buntings (indigo being my favorite) and warblers. If you love birds, you'd love these woods. 8-)
Re: Alternative use for lunge whip.......
I have both barn swallows (in my barn and arena)
[img]http://www.ontarionature.org/bba/images…]
and vaux's swifts (in my chimney)
[img]http://vauxhappening.org/Vauxs_Happenin…]
They look similar in flight but can be distinguished by the swallow's forked tail and the swift's peculiar tendency to appear to be alternating the wings (I think it's an illusion).
Re: Alternative use for lunge whip.......
awww! Too bad!