Noxubee Wildlife Refuge

Couple good nights in a row road herping out at Noxubee Wildlife Refuge here in north Mississippi. Couple Cottonmouths, a Pygmy Rattlesnake, and a little Garter Snake.
Not pictured are two DORs, big timber rattler about 4’+ and another cottonmouth both found dead last night.
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Bonus pic of a Great Blue Heron in Bluff Lake
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Nice photos, thanks for sharing! :D

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Nice photos, thanks for sharing! :D

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Thank you! I’m going to try and make this more of a regular activity when it’s warm enough. I’ll post more pics as I find different species or individual variations within species


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BTW, what did you "do" to those cottonmouths to keep them so calm? "Everyone" claims they get chased by them, lol. :rolleyes:

Hah! Yeah, what vicious beasts they are!

Completely honest, they didn’t even gape at us last night or tonight. Never let that drop your guard though


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Of course no human onlookers EVER provoke them...:rolleyes:

Very cool finds and thanks for sharing. That Pygmy is so colorful. Speaking of colorful, I find it interesting that the darkest part of an adult cottonmouth, the tail, starts out as the brightest part (neon green) when they are babies. Same with Copperheads. Got to love nature.

What a fruitful evening! Thanks for sharing your photos.

I’m not very good at identifying colubrids and may be mistaken, but pics 4,5,7 look like a Copperhead to me. I don’t mean to be petty or unappreciative, just curious since you didn’t mention them.

Looking forward to to your next excursion.

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Originally Posted by Reinz

...I’m not very good at identifying colubrids and may be mistaken, but pics 4,5,7 look like a Copperhead to me. I don’t mean to be petty or unappreciative, just curious since you didn’t mention them...

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If you just google cottonmouth photos, you'll see the huge range of markings they can possess, from dark & hard to see, to lighter & more visible; note the eye stripe
on these (cottonmouths) above...copperheads don't have them.