This week photos...

Yearling rubber boa, Charina bottae


Western racer, Coluber constrictor


Quick run over to Montana's Bloody Dick Creek.

Great finds, Jack ! Ok, rub it in.....someday I will find my own boa

Like those racers. Fast and catch mice.

Used to catch them in FLA , as a kid. My favorite of all times were the Blue Indigo. They got large and to see those deep colours in the sun , gradually blending into blue-red underneath, was amazing. They are most beautiful . That deep indigo continues to be among my most admired colours on muscle show cars to this day.

Good find, Jack. With the heat index accelerating in the next days, they all will be in their holes with the AC on !

And how you spose they got that name for that Station………?

The story I've heard, Nessy, is back in 1860, anybody that happened onto the guy (Richard Leigh?) always commented that he was always covered in beaver blood from his skinning, thus they started calling him Bloody Dick. Hopefully Tater will chime in with the history of the guy.

Jack

There is a book about Richard Leigh

I don't have this book in my library yet.

Thanks wetdog. In my mind, there is considerable confusion on the history. The books I've read talk of Richard Leigh as "Beaver Dick" and he was 100 miles to the south of "Bloody Dick". Beaver Dick was in the Jackson Hole area (originally Pierre's Hole), and over on the Idaho side of the Tetons in the Idaho Falls/Fort Hall area. Was it the same person (?) that had two different names? Back in the day, a hundred miles was nothing for those trappers. A good read on "Beaver Dick" is Cort Conley's Idaho Loners, but I still am confused if this is the same guy as "Bloody Dick".

Jack

Isn't there a Beaver Dick campground on the Snake just east of Idaho Falls ?

Sent these pictures to a Tman member a few days ago to show him the country I work and trap in.

Hodagtrapper and his smallmouth.

Chris

These 2 are for your enjoyment, Jack. I see them quite often doing prairie dog work.

Always cool (for me anyway) to see the critters and the scenery where you guys trap and recreate. Thanks.

silky - That buzz-worm looks to be bigger than anything we have in these parts. Pretty cool... Do you know precisely what species?

Jack

Crotalus viridis (Common names: prairie rattlesnake, western rattlesnake, Great Plains rattlesnake) That one was a dandy. That's why I took the picture. They do get big out here but don't see them like that very often. You'll see a lot of various sizes.

silky - Very interesting. Our rattlesnake in the county I live in (Lemhi) is Crotalis viridis as well. Supposedly, it only exists in this, and one other county in Idaho. The remainder of the state (where rattlesnakes exist) has Crotalis oreganus, the Pacific rattlesnake. We are fairly high elevation, with relatively cold, long, winters, thus a three-foot rattler is a relatively big 'un.

Jack

Jack, three-footers are probably the average size of them here. I bet temperature, elevation, and food habitat have something to do with it. They thrive in the prairie dog towns, excellent habitat for them.

The areas I'm in range from 3200' - 4000' in elevation, much lower than some of your country. Plus our winters aren't as long.

Thanks silky. Yes, I live in the bottomlands right at 5,000'. Catching most rattlesnakes between 6 and 7,000' elevation. With well over 300 records, the earliest I've ever recorded them (over a 13-year period) was 4 May, and the latest was 10 October. Thus, the observed maximum that they are out of brumation is 159 days, or 44% of the year.

Again, thanks for teaching me, silky. You made it a good day.

Jack

Jack
Here's dead horse pass.last week end.

That's a nice pic Nate-like a postcard.
Looks like somebody cut most of the firewood though.

I've always heard that Missouri had good horses. That terrain looks a little upendicular for Missouri though.

Jack

River -

That almost looks like a piece of humpback whale baleen without the hairs. What would something like that weigh? Way past cool! You don't salt-slurry those things and keep 'em in the hold?