NC Aquarium

[Ozzy]

The state Aquarium was having a reptile demonstration and of course I had to go.

When you walk in the door one of the first things you see is a huge VFT.

And this creature is guarding the vft.

I guess I got a little to close to the vft.

We had a stare down .

We were both determined.

He won so I moved on to less threating creatures.

Like these friendly copperheads.

These bobwhites wouldn't hold still for me to get a good pic.

This was a nice gator.

You just don't know how hard it was for me not to reach in and touch him.

These guys wasn't so friendly, They were very snappy even through the plastic.

This was an awesome animal. An albino snapping turtle.

 

[Ozzy]

One of my favorite animals, Eastern Diamondback

A very active canebrake timber rattlesnake.

A snake in the grass, lol.

 

[Ozzy]

What you talkin bout Willis?

The always gentle Cottonmouth.

Of course more gators.

Look he was smiling at me.

I bet you couldn't tell that I love their eyes.

 

[Ozzy]

Ok enough of gator's eyeballs.

This is a southern hognose. They are very rare. This is the first one I've seen.

Well there is the proof that he's a southern and not an eastern, if you know what to look for.

Well this is an aquarium, I pulled myself away from the reptiles long enough to get a few shots of the fish.

The next pic is amazing.

During Hurricane Hazel, this is where the storm surge was. That means the land was under 17 ft of water. Hazel made a direct hit on the beach I live at. Every house disappeared on the beach. They were washed out to sea during the storm. Not only this beach but on the beaches east and west of me only one house survived on each beach. That's only because they were built on higher ground. Almost every house within 50 miles of me on the beach was destroyed.

You can't see how high this is by the pics. Measure 17 feet on a tree and then stand next to it. Then imagine a wall of water that high coming towards you blown by 150 mph winds. The storm devastated a path from NC through Canada. It is still the worst disaster Toronto has ever had. Hazels death toll was in the thousands, but only 18 of those were from NC.

These were the two worse hurricane I have been through. They were almost as powerful as Hazel, but Hazel hit at high tide causing a way higher storm surge.

Floyd was very devastating because it moved so slow. It lasted for 3 days. The rain and flooding was indescribable.

Bonnie nor Bertha didn't do a lot of damage.

 

[herenorthere]

It's too bad you didn't have someone stand next to the VFT vine so we could get a sense of scale. I'm curious whether it's as large as the one that ate that guy in Norway. I can't tell whether those traps are a couple cm across or a couple m. It makes a difference.

 

[Ozzy]

This is a very large vft. I estimate it to be in the 10 foot range. I failed to measure it when I was there, but judging from the raw unsized, uncropped photo I believe it to be around 10 feet.

I'll include, a link to that photo for you to judge for yourself. Be warned it is large.

http://photo.ringo.com/255/255764137O262588184.jpg

If my estimation of the wall blocks are correct at 6 inches each, that will put this vft over 10 ft tall, including the flower.

Maybe that's not a flower stem, but a vine.

 

[swords]

Damn that's a huge VFT, poster!

 

[obregon562]

Wow. Great pictures! Awsome stuff there!

That green aligator in the bottom right gave me all i needed to know!

 

[vraev]

that is soooooooo awsome. I would love just love to go there. Maannnn!! How come there isn't stuff like this in the city I live. Sheesh!