Creek Skulls and Caution Snakes

Look what Brandon found in the creek tonight!  A deer skull with attached antlers.  

When he first emerged from the forest brandishing his new treasure, I pulled my phone from my pocket and snapped this picture.  The eerie glow is from the sweat that was coating my camera lens.  I couldn't even find a dry spot on my shirt to dry it off with.  How gross is that?  It rained several times throughout the day, but the temperature was hot, and I am sure you can imagine just how muggy Georgia is on a summer evening after a rain.  It's like swimming through the air.  Trying to do physical work in these conditions, like hammering stakes in the ground and carrying twenty foot long poles, is good for my pores, I guess.  I don't know why we bother to wear our rubber hip waders when we are going to be soaked through with perspiration anyway.  We might as well swim in the creek.  But, the creek has dead deer in it, so maybe the rubber boots are a good idea! 

While we were all out working, Jamie texted us this picture from his bat survey site, which was in a park- Caution Snakes, the worst kind!  I have to say that I have talked to more people with intense fear of snakes in this state than any other I have worked in.  Nearly every person who grants me permission to set up on their land warns me of snakes.  One nice man insisted that Brandon and I stand on the back of his tractor while he drove us to the creek to keep us from actually putting our feet on the ground.  Because, you know, snakes live on the ground.  I hated to tell him that standing on the back of his rusted out antique tractor and dodging tree limbs was probably the most dangerous thing I have done in a long time, and that I would much prefer to take my chances with the snakes.  In all the weeks I have been here I haven't seen a single venomous snake.  I'm sure people are flocking to go to the park sprinkled with these signs, too.  Nothing says family fun like signage with a striking serpent.