 William Wise Photo Nature Notes is a wildlife, birding and nature photography blog documenting the wonders of God’s creation. "Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is His work." Psalms 111:2  Rough Green Snake; Clarke County, Georgia. Opheodrys aestivus, commonly known as the rough green snake, is a nonvenomous North American colubrid. It is sometimes called grass snake or green grass snake, but these names are more commonly applied to the smooth green snake (Opheodrys vernalis). (Wikipedia)  The rough green snake is docile, often allowing close approach by humans, and seldom bites. Even when bites occur, they have no venom and are harmless. (Wikipedia)
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 William Wise Photo Nature Notes is a wildlife, landscape, birding and nature photography blog documenting the wonders of God’s creation. Psalm 143:5 I remember the days of old. I ponder all your great works and think about what you have done.  Red-tailed Hawk being mobbed by blackbirds as two Mourning Doves watch. Clarke County, Georgia. May 3, 1998 –Going through old boxes and albums looking for my first photos of bird species. This film flashback is from 1998 when I stopped my car along Lexington Road in Athens, GA to get a shot of a Red-tailed Hawk being harassed by crows. Perhaps his intentions were to eat the two Mourning Doves also in the photo.   Cuvier's Dwarf Caiman in a kiddie pool in my apartment. From the years 1993 to roughly 1999, several other critters joined my captive collection. I had a collection of Tokay Geckos, a Mexican Spiny-tailed Iguana, a Tegu, Green Anoles, House Geckos and several others. Of the lizards, my meanest was by far a Nile Monitor. They are notoriously aggressive, even when captive raised from hatchlings. Mine was no different. He was my “garbage disposal” lizard. Whatever mice weren’t eaten by the snakes overnight, he’d happily gobble up the next night. As he grew, he was housed in an 8-foot long cage with a trap door in the top into which to drop his food. As the little door opened, he’d jump to catch the falling rodent mid-air! He was nearly impossible to handle without getting bit. I still bear the scars of his claws on my arms to this day. My biggest lizard was a Savannah Monitor. Well, perhaps I shouldn’t say “biggest”, but fattest! He wasn’t very long, perhaps three feet, but he was just as wide! I bought him from an individual as a big adult but soon realized why they had decided to re-home him. His food was strictly large rats and canned can food. Input equals output… and it was quite messy and odiferous!  My large Savannah Monitor getting some sun in the backyard. Also to join my collection for period of time were a baby Spectacled Caiman and a Cuvier’s Dwarf Caiman. As the baby caiman began to grow so rapidly, I soon realized my folly and gave him to a friend who could better house him. At just two feet, the Dwarf Caiman was much easier to fit in the kiddie pool in the corner of my bedroom. Unfortunately, he passed away after a few months, perhaps from intestinal parasites.  Cuvier's Dwarf Caiman in a kiddie pool in my apartment.  William Wise Photo Nature Notes is a wildlife, landscape, birding and nature photography blog documenting the wonders of God’s creation. 1 Kings 4:32-34 Solomon wrote three thousand wise sayings and composed more than one thousand songs. He could talk about all kinds of plants, from large trees to small bushes, and he taught about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish. Kings all over the world heard about Solomon’s wisdom and sent people to listen to him teach.  Young Black Ratsnake with a full belly found in Clarke County, Georgia.  Amos 3:5 Does a bird ever get caught in a trap that has no bait? Does a trap spring shut when there’s nothing to catch?  Great Crested Flycatcher, April 23, 1998 Even back in the 1900’s I used to carry my film camera with me quite often. One afternoon, while on a door-to-door outreach in an Athens, I came across this Great Crested Flycatcher, Myiarchus crinitus, trapped inside of the stairwell of an apartment complex.
According to www.allaboutbirds.org, the Great Crested Flycatcher is “a large, assertive flycatcher with rich reddish-brown accents and a lemon-yellow belly that is a common bird of Eastern woodlands. These flycatchers swoop after flying insects. They are the only Eastern flycatchers that nest in cavities, and this means they sometimes make use of nest boxes.  Psalm 143:5 I remember the days of old. I ponder all your great works and think about what you have done.  A pair of Canada Geese raised their goslings on a pond off Lexington Road in Athens, Clarke County, Georgia. April 1998. Every morning and afternoon from 1996 to 2006 I would have to drive by a small pond near the Athens-Clarke County jail to pick up and drop off the inmate laborers that worked in our animal shelter. Even on this small pond with very little cover, the Canada Geese would raise goslings, and the herons and egrets would fish.  September 1998 - Canada Geese swim in a small Clarke County pond while a Great Blue Heron fishes in the background.  September 1998 - Great Egret with a catch.  Great Blue Heron  Psalm 143:5 I remember the days of old. I ponder all your great works and think about what you have done.  Juvenile Black Ratsnake; Clarke County, Georgia. A baby Black Ratsnake, most likely removed from someone’s home on an animal control call in 1998. The photo was taken on an old wood pile outside my apartment.
 Proverbs 30:28 "Lizards—they are easy to catch, but they are found even in kings’ palaces."  Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus); Clarke County, Georgia. A small Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus) I caught around my house in Athens, Georgia and photographed before letting him go. The eastern fence lizard is a medium-sized species of lizard in the family Phrynosomatidae. The species is found along forest edges, rock piles, and rotting logs or stumps in the eastern United States. It is sometimes referred to as the prairie lizard, fence swift, gray lizard, northern fence lizard or pine lizard.  Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus); Clarke County, Georgia.  Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is his work. Psalms 111:2  An Eastern Mud Turtle photographed (according to my old photo album) in Madison County, Georgia on April 13, 1998.  Captive Mojave Rattlesnake from my collection in the 1990's. The Mojave rattlesnake is considered one of the world's most venomous snakes. A subspecies of Mojave rattlesnake has a neurotoxic venom that is considered to be the most debilitating and potentially deadly of all rattlesnakes, and even matching several elapids (Cobra family). “Have you ever been bit?” is the question I frequently receive when people find out about the collection of 18 rattlesnakes I had in my apartment in the 1990’s. “Well yes, and no.” I reply. The truth is, I was bitten by a rattlesnake, but I wasn’t envenomated. The craziest snake in my collection was a Mojave Rattlesnake, Crotalus scutulatus. It was crazy in the fact that I dared to keep it! All the time I had this snake, it never calmed down. This rattler was always ready! Whenever you walked in the room, day or night, it was immediately up in arms, rattling away and striking at the glass. It was also crazy in how deadly this snake could be. Websites state: Crotalus scutulatus (common names: Mojave rattlesnake, Mojave green) is a highly venomous pit viper species found in the deserts of the southwestern United States and central Mexico. It is perhaps best known for its potent neurotoxic-hemotoxic venom, which is considered the world's most potent rattlesnake venom. A bite can produce vision abnormalities and difficulty swallowing and speaking. In severe cases, skeletal muscle weakness can lead to difficulty breathing and even respiratory failure. And of all places, his glass cage was right above my bed!
Most of the rattlesnakes in my collection were fairly docile and their cages could be spot cleaned while they lay in one corner. Not the Mojave! It was always a production to feed, move and clean him. I usually took him out of his cage using snake tongs, all the while he would rattle and strike, and placed him in a large plastic Rubbermaid box. One day I placed him in the box and threw in a mouse for him to eat while I cleaned his cage. As I lowered the plastic lid, he pin-point struck right at my hand and hit my pinky finger that was along the lip of the lid! I slammed the lid and looked at my finger. There was a small cut with a drop of blood. I knew I had been hit. I ran to the bathroom and began squeezing it, running it under water, sucking it and waited… and waited… and waited. After about five or ten minutes I called my friend. “If I had been envenomated, don’t you think I’d be feeling something by now?” As I calmed, I began to think more clearly about what had happened. Most of my hand was safely above the lid as I lowered it. Only my pinky was alongside the lip of the box lid and must have protruded just a tad below the lip. I believe that when the snake struck, his fangs hit the lip of the lid. It was his bottom teeth, which don’t inject venom, that grazed my pinky, causing the small slice as he recoiled back. All that saved me from a bite from one of the potentially most deadly rattlesnakes was a lip of plastic about a centimeter wide! Thank you, Jesus!  This large male Canebrake Rattlesnake was the favorite of my collection; my pride and joy. He entertained many friends and visiting pastors and evangelists that came to my apartment to watch him strike, envenom, and eat rats. As my fascination with native reptiles waxed, I knew I would one day be adding a rattlesnake to my collection. But trying to ease into the realm of venomous reptiles, also know by collectors at ‘hot herps’, I decided to begin with baby steps by obtaining some less deadly serpents. On our drive back from Tucson in 1994, we stopped in Lubbock, Texas and I bought a trio of Trans-pecos Copperheads from a collector there. One guy in the car, our friend Kerry, wasn’t too thrilled with sharing the next 12 hours in the backseat with them! I don’t think he slept at all and kept his eyes fixed on their plastic shoeboxes. My first rattlesnake was added to my collection by swapping one of the Trans-pecos Copperheads for a young Canebrake Rattlesnake with a friend that worked at the local nature center. This Canebrake became my favorite snake; my pride and joy. He would never refuse food and frequently got the mice the other snakes didn’t eat. He grew quickly and was four feet long and as big around as my arm when I finally gave him away to a friend.  My smaller female Canebrake Rattlesnake. I wasn't successful in breeding the pair. Over the few years of keeping venomous reptiles, the rattlesnakes were my favorite. My goal was to have at least one of every North American species of rattlesnake. I came pretty close, but eventually sold off the collection around 1999 before reaching my goal. All in all, I had 18 venomous snakes in my apartment. I did make one sad mistake. In my desperation to have an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake, I bought three wild-caught adults from a "zoo" down in Florida. I tried everything to get them to eat, but they just would not feed in captivity. I watched them waste away and eventually die. Looking back, I wish I had driven back down to Florida to release them. Even with all that handling, cleaning and feeding, I only had one close call, and that is a story of its own: the Mojave Green Rattlesnake!
 A friend, co-worker, and fellow reptile enthusiast of mine in the late nineties kept quite a grand collection of large pythons. I was frequently at his house to help him move, clean and feed these giants beasts. In fact, we converted an entire room in his duplex into a python cage, replacing the door with a glass door. The biggest of these pythons age buck rabbits the size of small dogs.      Carolina Chickadee bird; Clarke County, Georgia. March 31, 1998. March 31, 1998 – I have no recollection of why I took this photo other than the bird was just there, but I do remember it was out behind the Athens-Clarke County Animal Control shelter where I was employed at the time. No matter the reason, it stands the oldest existing photograph I have of a Carolina Chickadee.
 What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations. Psalms 104 The Message  Several large alligators sunning themselves along the canals of the the Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive within the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. My second trip to the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge. We primarily stayed on the Laurel Hill Wildlife Drive. The drive in the SNWR is a great way to see alligators and wildlife up close, especially for those who love outdoors but may not be able to trudge through swamps and marshes. The four-mile drive follows the checkerboard levees of an old rice plantation. In the warming spring months and early summer mornings, there are alligators on every bank around every turn; even multiple “big ones” sunning together in one spot. SNWR was a favorite spot to "reptile hunt" in my college days.  Great Egrets at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge  "For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible ... everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him." Colossians. 1:16  Common Garter Snake; Clarke County, Georgia. March 20, 1998. Another animal control critter caught in someone's house in 1998.  Common Garter Snake; Clarke County, Georgia. March 20, 1998. |
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In December 1993 I came to know the Designer and Creator of this wonderful planet and its creatures: Jesus Christ.
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