Saturday, June 18, 2005

What's that - a Cottonmouth?


What's that - a Cottonmouth? Well, kind of. Actually, it's a very large Bull snake (4+ feet) with little Peter Cotton Tail (or what's left of him) IN his mouth.

After a great baseball game this morning (first game of tournament, their team advanced!), Malachi and I decided to go for a bike ride on top of the Rims. Now, those of you who aren't from Billings may well be wondering - what the heck are "the Rims"? Basically, "the Rims" is shorthand for "Rimrocks", sandstone cliffs which run along the north end of the Billings. If you can remember back to American history, hearing about Indians who ran bison off of "Buffalo Jumps" you'll have the right idea.

At any rate, there are a lot of great mountain bike trails along the top of the rims. And as I rode past one very large rock I heard one very large hiss (Malachi said the snake actually lunged at my bike wheel). He hollered snake, we jumped off our bikes and managed to get some really great photos.

Bullsnakes aren't dangerous (although they can sound pretty scary when they hiss). In fact, they are great to have around because they keep the rodent populations in check - but a lot of them get killed by people who mistake them for rattlesnakes. In this case, this snake was just finishing up a baby rabbit that he had caught (there are rabbits ALL OVER the place up here). So he wasn't particularly happy about being disturbed.

We watched him for a few minutes until he slithered away into the grass, where he waits to this day for his next unsuspecting victim...

Anybody want to go for a hike on the rims? :-)

Ok, that was mean. In case you'd like to see more pictures, mosey on over here and then scroll up to see the day unfold. As for me, I'm off to bed to dream nice, snakey dreams!

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