Pygmy Rattlesnakes! :)

I love these little snakes!  I think it's fascinating that they're so small yet they can pack a punch so heavy that it will usually force a grown man into the hospital.  This happened to a friend of mine and while he made a full recovery it was still several thousand in hospital bills.  He got bit attempting to catch it... that's a big no no.  Anyway, the goal here was to show pygmy rattlesnakes in a positive way.  These snakes get killed in the thousands by cars and snake haters and most everyone despises them.  I wanted to show people that given respect this snake is willing to get a long peacefully with mankind.  I did this by getting up close and personal and showing what these guys do on a daily basis.  They hide, bask, and wait for prey to come by.  They do NOT try to get in your house and kill all your pets and children as some believe.  They're under appreciated little animals that have a beautiful pattern highlighted by vivid orange down the length and they have some sweet eyes that are half gold and half gray.  So until next time, try to find a new way to appreciate nature!

My First AnimalBytesTV Episode!

My first episode is on some common non-venomous snakes in Florida.  Basically the purpose of this episode was to show the nature of snakes.  I did get bit a few times in the show but that was purely because I deserved it.  Whenever another creature picks up a snake in nature it's because it wants to eat the snake so naturally the snake will do whatever it can to escape, including biting.  There were other snakes that I held that just tried to squirm away because they don't have much of a bite, like the rough green snake and ringneck.  If people can understand the nature of snakes I think it will make them much less fearful of them so venturing out into nature will be far less stressful.  There is a broad hatred of snakes in cultures all over the world and in such a modern world that I live in I think it's crazy that people are still so ignorant of the nature of snakes.  That nature is to survive so if they can they will slither away but if they're cornered they will defend themselves by hissing or biting.  This is why it is far safer to leave any snake alone if you don't want to get bit.

SHARKS!!!

Recently I went on a scalloping trip with some friends and wanted to film some sharks while we were there.  I knew there were sharks in the area so all I had to do was draw them in and it would be simple, right?  Not so much.  I got some fish and started chumming.  Pretty quickly a bunch of little fish swarmed around the chum bag.  I figured this was a good sign as it might draw in the predators I was hoping to find.  I waited a while and a few remoras showed up.  That was a good sign as they often hang out with larger sea creatures.  A little while longer and I thought I saw my first shark!  Nope, it was a cobia.  Too bad I was filming and not fishing.  I left the bag for a while and came back and still nothing was around.  My friend was on the boat fishing and I look up to see him fighting a fish.  So I swam over to see what he had on his line.  It was a shark!  I've been chumming for an hour and no sharks came by but he threw out one piece of chunk bait and the shark finds that.  I concluded that the sharks were just really shy and filmed the shark my friend had caught as he released it.  It wasn't what I had hoped for but I did get a really neat shot as the shark swam away over the grass flats.

Night Shining for Critters

Many outdoors men are aware that many animals have reflective eyes, like deer, gators, raccons, opossums, and felines.  However, most aren't aware that there are a plethora of invertebrates, snakes, and amphibians to be found.  Many of these creatures are rare or absent during the day so you get to see a whole new variety of animals at night.

One of my favorite creatures to shine is the rough green snake.  It likes to coil up and sleep in dense foliage anywhere above around five feet.  Personally, I've seen them sleep thirty feet up but I'm sure on a calm night they wouldn't have any problem with sleeping higher than that.  The reason shining them works so well is because they reflect light.  The reason they reflect light is because the dew falls on them and beads up on their scales.  It's like a thousand little round mirrors all over the body of the snake.  This doesn't happen on most plants because the surface of the leaf is different.  This same thing happens with green anoles and other arboreal lizards.  Pretty much all you do is shine your light in areas you think a snake might like to sleep and you cover as much suitable habitat as possible.

When shining expect to find thousands of spiders.  Yes, out in the country you will see them everywhere.  Most have several eyes so you can pretty much pick up an eye shine regardless of how they are positioned. I shined up some frogs and toads as well.  One thing I didn't expect was a roosting butterfly covered in dew.

All in all it's a fun thing to do and you'll always find something to take a closer look at.  So grab your light and head out into the nature to check out the nocturnal world!

A Two-nighter Survival Trip with a Friend

There aren't many primitive archery folks in the state of Florida.  We're a fairly scattered bunch, so when we meet someone within a couple hours we like to meet up and share ideas and methods.  Being into all this primitive stuff it's hard to avoid poking your nose into wilderness survival. 

I met up with a friend over on the other side of Florida and we kayaked to a really neat area that he knew about.  So we get to this spot and there's supposed to be a spring back in the woods.  We find it but the water is cloudy and there's no flow coming out.  It was obvious that historically there was plenty of flow out of the spring into the main river.  This was a dead spring.  So we scouted around it and after like ten minutes we had gotten away from the spring into some thick woods.  When we decided to go back we realized the spring was not where we thought it was.  Yeah, we got all turned around and lost.  This has never happened to either of us.  We're experienced woodsman and we don't just get lost like that.  So after wandering around for a while we decided we were really lost and to keep moving might mean we were getting more lost.  My instincts were telling me that the river was to our right.  Keep in mind the sun was directly above us.  So I decided we should go that direction through the thick woods until we came across something.  Looking at the tree tops ahead of me it appeared that there was a clearing just ahead.  We kept going toward it for a while but it seemed to keep moving away from us as we approached it.  At last it started to get closer and I got up on a small ridge and through the brush I caught a glimpse of the brown flowing water!  I tell my friend that I think I see the river and after a short pause of silence he replies and says, "look!  There's our kayaks right there!" Haha, we had gone right back to where we entered the woods and didn't even know it!  The rest of the first day was used to build a shelter and fire.  Both of which I'm pretty proud of accomplishing even though it was my friend who did most of the fire making.  It seems the ticket was the bow drill method with cedar spindle and cedar hearth. 

                       Life vests were used as pillows and seat cushions... not to save lives. lol

 

We got the fire going just in time so we moved it under the shelter and let the rain come down.  We then found some gathered rain water and dipped some up and boiled it.  If the water is on the ground we always boil it.  Earlier I had smelled up some mint so I harvested some and threw it in the boiled water to flavor it and possibly add some nutritional value.  It was some minty mint tea for sure.  

 

 As it got dark I dreaded the inevitable onslaught of mosquitoes that I was sure would invade our open shelter.  To my surprise and delight very few mosquitoes showed themselves.  There were a lot of beauty berry bushes around our shelter and we were burning cedar so those two things could have been factors.  This is very good to know.

Day two consisted of boiling more water, some foraging, and looking for meat.  My friend spooked a couple pigs but we were unprepared to make such a big kill.  Getting protein was what we struggled with most.  I admit that I personally slacked in that area.  I learned a lot about what goes on in my head.  I knew I was leaving the next day back to a land of plentiful food.  I started on a fish trap and it was actually looking pretty good but as evening came I lost the drive to finish it as I knew the next morning I would be able to get easy food.  In this area I learned a lot and I was glad to learn it.  We did end up gathering fresh water mussels (asian clams) and boiled them up.  My friend didn't like them so I ate most of them.  The trick is to swallow them whole so you don't bite on the gritty inside. After some research I will likely never eat them again as there are some risks associated with the species we ate.  Hopefully I got lucky this time.  We hopped in the river and found some rock suitable for making spear heads and the like.  My friend brought his knapping tools so he cranked out a crude but sharp spear point and mounted it.

We boiled more water and fed the fire as the sun went down.  I got more sleep the second night and woke up maybe six times or so to get the fire going again.  I kept my feet by the fire as they actually got a little bit cold at night.  I have found that the best way to sleep is straight on your back and if you're not used to sleeping like this you should get used to it at home.  Most other sleeping positions will result in limbs falling asleep and other discomforts. 

The next morning we were pretty well ready to get out of there.  We were up with the sun and started actually moving about an hour after light.  We anticipate revisiting this area so we left all of our primitive stuff in the shelter plus a pot for boiling water.  So if you come across a hut in the woods with a bow and two fishing arrows, a spear, and a pot then you have found our place and you are welcome to stay so long as you maintain the hut and are respectful of the wilderness around you.

Primitive Progression

Some say making arrows is up there with making bows in difficulty.  I don't agree with that but there is a lot of work and understanding involved in making a good arrow.  You have three main components to an arrow; arrowhead, shaft, and fletching.  Attaching the point and straightening the shaft are pretty straight forward but the fletching determines most of the flight of the arrow.  If you fletch it wrong your arrow will fly real wonky but if everything is symmetrical it will fly true and straight.

The eastern two fletch is the style that natives in eastern North America used and this was something that I wanted replicate.  I had tried many times before to fletch arrows like this but I always ran into issues when I tried the methods that were shown online.  These methods often involved splitting the feather and grinding it down evenly.  Sure that's easy if you have a belt sander but I'm not interested in using electricity to make something from the stone age.  That doesn't make sense to me.  Anyway, I knew natives were doing this a thousand years ago but I didn't have an exact replica in front of me so I had to figure it out on my own. 

I left the eastern two fletch alone for a while and experimented with other types of two fletch for a while then came back to it after a friend encouraged me to do so.  I tried different things with where I attached the sinew in the front but it wasn't turning out how I wanted it to.  It finally clicked though.  Why grind the vane down and make it flimsy?  Just leave the feather almost whole and flatten the vane where it attaches to the shaft in the front.  This was so simple!  I've never seen anyone else do this and when I figured it out I was baffled that I didn't figure this out earlier.  Anyway, above is the how-to video in case you're interested in making your own eastern two fletch arrows.

Gator Surveyin'

Riding around on an air boat at night shining for alligators isn't really my cup of tea.  It sounds straight up redneck to me.  On top of that I kind of hate air boats.  I'm convinced more of the energy produced from the engine goes into noise.  However, in the name of science I was willing to head out into the vast wetlands of the St. Johns to help conduct an alligator survey.

The main purpose of the survey was to determine how many alligator tags would be handed out for the alligator hunting season.  The survey was fun, but not all fun.  Most of the time I was inputting the data that I was constantly being given by the biologist that I was with.  Also there was a constant stream of bugs hitting us all over.  It was like bug snow rising out of the water.  It definitely gave me a better understanding of ecology and the importance of water.

On to the fun part though!  We got to catch alligators!  Apparently catching alligators is illegal but if it's for science it's okay.  We caught two and measured them to make sure we were accurately estimating their size.  These alligators were small enough to grab with one hand, around 3 feet.  I will add that the alligator I caught was the bigger of the two.

It was a good trip and we counted 513 total alligators from Lake Harney north to mullet lake park.  Although it wasn't all alligator wrangling I still had a blast and look forward to volunteering and building a positive relationship with the FWC in the future.