11-26-2005, 03:53 PM
[cool][#0000ff]In one of the sections of my "book in progress", I discuss the potential for "wildlife encounters" and how to deal with them. Obviously, the best policy is to avoid situations in which the possibility of getting up close and personal with something hazardous to your health. That includes gators, poisonous snakes, snapping turtles and operators of PWC.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe has always had a severe dislike of reptiles. She won't even touch a harmless lizard. However, she has made great progress since we were married (26 years ago). While we lived in Arizona, we hiked in the desert a lot. Whenever I heard her hit "high C", I did not say "What is it?". I said "Where is it?". I knew it had to be some kind of snake...and it did not matter what kind it was. As far as she is concerned "A snake is a snake."[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I did a lot of photography down in Arizona, and put together a large slide show for "snowbirds" (winter visitors) called "Desert Bloomers". It was mostly about the blooming plants and cacti of the desert, but included some wildlife shots too. Of course, there had to be some "buzztails" to make it all authentic. Greenhorns gotta see snakes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]When we first started photographing that "flora and fauna", TB would not stay anywhere within rock-throwing distance of any snake I happened to be working with. However, as the years passed, and as she learned more about the different snakes and their harmless demeanor, she would actually stand beside me as I coaxed the critters to "
for the camera".[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We saw several rattlers swimming out in the water on the Arizona lakes we fished. TubeBabe proved that you can actually throw up a roostertail from a float tube. On one occasion a harmless little blue racer tried to join her in her tube, mistaking her for a small island upon which it might rest on its journey across the lake. She was not very hospitable and thrashed the water to a froth with her net, until the poor
little snakey abandoned its quest to be sociable.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]On one of her trips to New Orleans, for a long weekend of fishing, TubeBabe beached her tube on a mud bar. She looked around very carefully, looking for anything slithery that might be waiting for her. Since it was about the end of February, and still a bit chilly, I assured her that there would be no snakes out and about, so she did not need to worry.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]She flew back to Tucson after that trip and I went back alone the following weekend. I almost did not tell her that sitting in the low bush next to where she got out was one of the biggest and meanest looking water moccasins I have ever seen. But, I did. I wonder why she did not come back over to go fishing with me again before I came home a couple of months later.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]TubeBabe has always had a severe dislike of reptiles. She won't even touch a harmless lizard. However, she has made great progress since we were married (26 years ago). While we lived in Arizona, we hiked in the desert a lot. Whenever I heard her hit "high C", I did not say "What is it?". I said "Where is it?". I knew it had to be some kind of snake...and it did not matter what kind it was. As far as she is concerned "A snake is a snake."[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I did a lot of photography down in Arizona, and put together a large slide show for "snowbirds" (winter visitors) called "Desert Bloomers". It was mostly about the blooming plants and cacti of the desert, but included some wildlife shots too. Of course, there had to be some "buzztails" to make it all authentic. Greenhorns gotta see snakes.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]When we first started photographing that "flora and fauna", TB would not stay anywhere within rock-throwing distance of any snake I happened to be working with. However, as the years passed, and as she learned more about the different snakes and their harmless demeanor, she would actually stand beside me as I coaxed the critters to "
for the camera".[/#0000ff] [#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]We saw several rattlers swimming out in the water on the Arizona lakes we fished. TubeBabe proved that you can actually throw up a roostertail from a float tube. On one occasion a harmless little blue racer tried to join her in her tube, mistaking her for a small island upon which it might rest on its journey across the lake. She was not very hospitable and thrashed the water to a froth with her net, until the poor
little snakey abandoned its quest to be sociable.[/#0000ff] [#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]On one of her trips to New Orleans, for a long weekend of fishing, TubeBabe beached her tube on a mud bar. She looked around very carefully, looking for anything slithery that might be waiting for her. Since it was about the end of February, and still a bit chilly, I assured her that there would be no snakes out and about, so she did not need to worry.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]She flew back to Tucson after that trip and I went back alone the following weekend. I almost did not tell her that sitting in the low bush next to where she got out was one of the biggest and meanest looking water moccasins I have ever seen. But, I did. I wonder why she did not come back over to go fishing with me again before I came home a couple of months later.[/#0000ff]
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