EDISTO SC VACATION TRIP

[Spurticus]

Just got back from our yearly vacation in Edisto SC. Had a great time
down there this week, and (as usual) saw some of the local wildlife
around the Island. Just thought I'd post some of the pictures from this
past week.
We stay at a resort on the island that has a waterway around the resort,
and supports a lot of reptiles.
There are a lot of Box Turtles, Yellow Bellied Sliders, Terrapins, snakes and
yes, a few aligators. The beach is also a sanctuary for the endangered
loggerhead turtle. I have not seen one of these yet, even though I've been
trying to get a picture of one for almost 15 years now. I have seen hundreds
of pictures from locals who have seen them though, including a record size
for one that was taken back in 1999. Edisto also has a serpentarium that
is a top notched facility and I have a lot of pictures from that stop as well.
I'll post some of those later, but here are a few from around Edisto, and
the Charleston SC area.

This set are some shots of some yellow bellied slider turtles, and one of the
two Aligators I saw this week. The one on the bank sunning is the smaller
one swimming in these set of pictures. (about 6' long). I have some shots
taken last year of the larger one (around 10') sunning on the same bank as
this one, but he didn't come out of the water this year (at least not so I
could see it).

 

[Spurticus]

Of these shots, the first one is of a REALLY BEAUTIFUL copperhead that I
walked up on playing golf. I went over to a ball I had hit along the left side
of a fairway, and was fortunate enough to have my camera for taking pics
of the course as I played. I saw something move on a log that was near
a water hazzard beside where my ball was. I thought it was a snake, but
didn't get too close until I knew what kind it was. I saw the markings on
the body as it was in the hole in this log and realized it was a copperhead.
I went to the cart to get my camera, and when I got back, this bad boy
had crawled out of the hole, and curled up as if it was posing for the picture.

The next two are from our tour of Boone Hall Pantation. There was this
Egret standing in a swampy looking area at the entrance to the plantation
and I snapped a shot of it on the way in. We got ready to take the house
tour, and a group of German Tourists were surrounding this small Magnolia
tree beside the porch of the Plantation house. I went over to see what was
going on, and saw the tail of a snake crawling up into the thick brances to
get away from the crowd. I snapped several pictures as it crawled in and
out of the branches, but most of them were blurry or covered by the leaves,
but did get this one good shot of a large (4') Yellow Rat snake.

The last two were taken on a lsland trip my wife and I took. It was a small
area called Otter Island were you take a boat out and they drop you off for
about 3 hours to gather seashells, and sand dollars. My wife love that stuff,
but I was told there were a lot of Rattlesnakes, and rat snakes inland from
the beach. . . . while she gathered shells, I looked for snakes. . . . she had
a better day than I did, but I did get a photo of a Blue Crab (hard to see
here because of the standing water and windy conditions) but did get a
good shot of a LARGE group of fiddler crabs. . . .enjoy

 

[tspuckler]

That sounds like a really good time. That photo of the baby yellowbelly turtle and the copperhead are exceptional.

Tim