2 Graham's Crayfish Snakes

Where I work in Vinita, Oklahoma, there are many small ponds, lakes, and rivers that crisscross the area. Today I got off of work, and visited a small pond off of the highway just a little ways, to check out what kind of wildlife was there - specifically snakes. The pond is surrounded by a thick ring of grass that goes all the way around, with some sort of animal trail around it. I was walking this trail, watching my step closely, and it's a good thing. I absolutely, no doubt, would have stepped on 2 large water mocassins (cottonmouths) had I not been paying attention. I didn't bother trying to catch these monsters, but I would've had I had a noose or something. Anyhow, after seeing these 2 serpents within my first minute of walking, I knew there had to be more.

I kept walking, and noticed that every time I passed a tree overhanging the water something would fall, and make a splashing noise. Since there were a lot of floating logs in the water, I figured that turtles were jumping off as I walked by, since I had seen them doing it when I first walked up to the pond. But there was something a little different about this sound - it was much closer to the shore, and had a not so "heavy" sounding. Like throwing a small stick in the water compared to a brick. So I started watching carefully as I passed each overhanging limb......and lo and behold, there were snakes dropping from them like mad. So I started walking reeaall slllowww, being quiet, and was able to sneak up on this rather large Graham's Crayfish Snake with a camera. It was basking on this tree, and even though I got fairly close (5 feet), there's no doubt that snake knew I was there. It eventually let itself fall into the water, very controlled. It didn't crawl down the limb for a second, or catch it's tail on the way down. It was a though-out maneuver I'm sure. The snake simply did a complete "turn" on it's long axis (head to tail), and the whole snake went straight down at once. Interesting how they've learned to do it so quick like that.

Oh, and on the way home, I was having to dodge these turtles crossing the road right? I would see them up ahead, and just sort of smile as I passed over them (NOT with the tires!). Well I noticed this one turtle from a ways back, and as I approached it in the truck there was no smile on my face whatsoever. It was the FUNKIEST looking turtle I had ever seen...I had to investigate this multilegged thing. So I stopped, turned around, and pulled over next to it on the shoulder. I jumped out and ran over to it, immediately realizing that this was no turtle at all - it was a rather large tarantula spider.............SO cool!!! It's the first one I've ever seen in the wild. I chased him (these things are fast!) across the road and into the woods a ways, and then let him tromp on by himself.