We Chased Our First Swimming Copperhead Of The Season

I went out with Jennifer and Christian yesterday to collect more scarlet and striped shiners from Limestone and Swan Creeks. Both creeks were even lower than before as the dry summer goes on. We found some really beautiful alpha male scarlets at Limestone Creek, along with tons of females and subadults. We also snagged some big striped shiners by sweeping the seine through one of the remaining deep channels in the creek. At Swan we were having trouble finding truly alpha male scarlets so we worked further downstream than usual. As we were sizing up one pool, a snake dropped out of a tree into the water and started cavorting about. It was a copperhead about 2/3's of a meter long; it looked surprisingly graceful in the water. Since we really wanted to seine that pool, Jennifer grabbed two sticks and started driving the snake upstream. It actually went quickly and without incident. Jennifer explained that she's been chasing them out of her garage, so they don't unnerve her. Christian looked a lot more reluctant to chase the snake. It didn't do us a whole ot of good, we were able to capture two more good-sized striped shiners out of that run and pool. The good news is that we got almost all of the fish home alive. Hopefully Jennifer can get some good photos of the alpha male scarlets tomorrow. Next, we have to figure out the best way to bleed a scarlet shiner so that we get 50 - 100 microliters of blood for testosterone assay.