Virginia Cobra

[ruthless]

Found this hognose snake swimming across on of the lakes I monitor water quality in. Pretty cool harmless snake that looks very intimidating. He was released unharmed.

[Dr. Harout]

Great thing you did.
At least we, photographers, do love this planet.

[aster]

Very nice and exciting!

I like how you managed to focus on the scales and the eye. Rather a challenge to photograph a moving creature while holding it, with the camera in the other hand.

Yildiz

[Armen Gharib]

Yes really nice shot, I like snakes.
we haven't cobars in Armenia, but here is one taken by Minolta 50mm Macro 2.8 which is widespread in Armenia

[Dr. Harout]

Armen, I think that is not a snake, rather a kind of lizard.

[Armen Gharib]

Doc jan here is wider view of that animal

[David Kilpatrick]

I think Doc means that it is what we call a 'slow worm' in Britain - looks like a snake, but technically, it's a lizard without legs or with vestigial legs that can be detected in the skeletal structure. Harmless and its habits resemble those of its lizards ancestors more than of snakes.

David

[springm]

Looks really dangerous if you don't know better!

[Armen Gharib]

Doc, David it is really a ancestor of lizard, and one can detect it not only from the skin but also from the eyes. All snakes and lizardds which are non-poisonous have eyes like circle but all poisonous ones have elliptic eyes,

[Armen Gharib]

I chechked in the dictionary its name is grass-snake

[David Kilpatrick]

We have grass snakes too - probably the most common in the UK. I am not sure if they look exactly the same, because even though they are common, in 56 years I have never seen one in the wild. I saw one in Yugoslavia in 1963.

David

[Armen Gharib]

Dear David

I have checked that picture in encyclopedia and the look is the same as this, there are several types of grass snakes and this one called yellow paunch grass snake!

[Dr. Harout]

And do be careful. They don't bite but they do hit with their tails, and that's quite painful.

[Armen Gharib]

Yes Doc,, my friend warned me to be careful from the tail because of it I catch it from the tail and played with it and simultaneously was capturing, in other case how could you imagine this kind of picture without crop, yes and one of defensive function of these snakes and lizards is pissing .