Looking for Okeetee (continued)


Diamondback!


Shootin' and wranglin'


Off into the sunset.

On our second circuit through we hit paydirt in the form of a large Eastern Diamondback, crawling in the middle of the road!  It was quite beautiful in the light of the setting sun.  It was a four-footer, and never rattled as we wrangled it for photos on the road.  After we were finished taking pictures and admiring the animal, we let it crawl off the road and into the underbrush, where it coiled up and began rattling at us!

We couldn't ask for a better find.  What creature could better serve to represent this place?  This animal crawled right out of Kauffeld's old tales and onto the road in front of us.

The sun went down, and despite making several more circuits of the triangle, we could scare up nothing other than a few toads.  It was our last day here, and it was time to start the long drive home.  I made the remark that I wished we could find one more species before we left, and as I finshed speaking I noticed a frog on the windshield of the vehicle. When I realized the frog was inside the vehicle, I opened my mouth to speak and the frog jumped right in my mouth!  Needless to say the frog and I both couldn't wait to be rid of each other.  It was a Squirrel Treefrog, a species we had heard often on the trip but hadn't seen.

I may have ended the trip with a bad taste in my mouth, but I was quite satisfied nonetheless!

back to index