A Great Horned Owl and a Coach Whip Snake...

...flew through the air right by our heads yesterday as we were riding our bicycles in the forest.

The Owl dropped the snake and we had to call Go Go back. It was the biggest Coach Whip I have ever seen, about 5 feet long and fat. Unfortunately the owl had already started killing it so we felt like we had unintentionally interrupted a natural act and so we left quickly hoping the owl would come back to finish what seemed inevitable.

Coach Whips are incredibly fast escape artists... you rarely get to actually look at them. This snake was in such poor shape that we couldn't enjoy the opportunity.

The owl must have been hungry to take on such a big snake so we were also dismayed that we had spooked it and caused it to drop it's food.

It reminded me that in our contemporary times that the Great Horned Owl is a top predator in our forest. It was huge and feeding in daylight.



On our way back we came across two rather large deer with the wind at their back. We got real close before they noticed us and spooked. As we were watching them wander off I noticed some turkey in a stand of younger pine trees.



Not a bad day of cycling in the woods.


best regards,
mike

I have heard that Coach Whips can get that long. I've seen some long skinny ones but never more that 6 feet, and they were usually moving away really fast. They still seem numerous out here in the forest, but like I say you only catch glimpses.

We see quail occasionally. The Apalachicola National Forest doesn't seem to have as much quail as the clay hills that start just to the north of us.
:-)