Water mocassins

Saw two water moccasins at the pond down by the back pasture yesterday. I heard a lot of splashing by the edge of the pond, more than the usual frog or two jumping in. I looked over and saw a good-sized snake in the water, swimming by way of twisting its body around. The head surfaced and I saw that it had a small frog in its mouth.

As I was pondering that scene, I glanced down as I was walking along and saw a moccasin right on the edge of the path! I froze and held my breath for a moment, and willed the dogs to stay ahead of me and not come investigate the snake. I tried shooing it away with futile hand gestures, then picked up a long stick and poked gently at it. The snake turned tail and slithered (oh, yes) away and hit the water so fast that I was amazed at the speed. So why am I the only one to have these wildlife encounters en route to the back pasture? A couple of months ago it was a dinner plate sized snapping turtle on the manure pile, hissing at me as I dumped a wheelbarrow load of dung.