This tiny lizard was on my husband's backpack when we sat on the Angel Falls Overlook at Big South Fork. Kenny caught it to put it back on the pine tree. It stayed still on his hand for a few minutes. The second he put it back on the bark, the lizard scurried around the tree! I was glad I had taken my pictures!
After dinner evening at the Summer Naturalist Week at Tremont, Dave, one of the researchers, took me down to the field to check the Snake traps. They are not really "traps" because the snakes can come and go as they please, I guess they should actually be called "snake attractors!" I was delighted to see a beautiful copperhead coiled in the corner when Dave lifted the tin! Out of the 5 tins we looked under, this was the only one with a copperhead, one of the others had a banded watersnake and another had a huge ant nest! The next day during an activity near the dorm, I saw 2 copperheads in the woods! The only other time I had seen a live copperhead was at Tremont a few years ago one evening when I was leading a night hike to go see the Ghost Fireflies. Since we had to get our eyes acclimated so we could walk in the dark, I was a bit preturbed when a car drove up and stopped in the road. Finally, walked up to the driver to see what was going on and he commented, "I stopped because there is a copperhead in the road in front of my car!" That driver may very well have saved me a trip to the emergency room! Had he not stopped, I probably would have stepped on it!
I saw this Brown Watersnake in a pond at the University of Tennessee Arboretum in Oak Ridge. When I went to the other side of the pond to get a closer look, it had slid into deeper water. They eat frogs and fish. East Tennessee does not have venomous water snakes, so this snake is no threat. Brown water snakes may not have venom, but they will bite if handled. Like many other snakes, it will defecate on the person who captures it. I have caught baby water snakes to show the children in my classes. They are nasty little snakes to handle!
