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WNEP (Scranton, Pennsylvania) 15 August 05 Bad Summer for Snakes (Scott Schaffer)
A man from Scranton is recovering after he was bitten by a snake in his own backyard. In the east mountain section of the Electric City residents say 2005 has been a banner year for snakes.
On Thursday, Gary Bower was bitten by a snake in the backyard of his home. He said he heard the dog barking out by his swimming pool. He went out barefoot to see what the problem was and right stepped on the four- foot snake, which proceeded to bite him twice.
Within hours, Bower went from a hospital in Scranton to a hospital in Harrisburg, where the doctors told him he'd been bitten by a Copperhead.
It wasn't the first snake sighting in the neighborhood this summer.
"We've seen more this summer than any of the nine years I've lived here," said neighbor Bill Tonkin. It's the talk of the neighborhood.
Another snake lies dead along Cherry Street and parents are warning their children to be extra careful, lest they get bitten just like Gary Bower.
"I was pretty worried. I was wondering if he was all right. I was asking my mom all kinds of questions about him (Bower)," said Kyle Haddock.
Pennsylvania's Fish and Boat Commission said the hot weather may play a role. When temperatures rise snakes, like people, look for something to drink and someplace cool to sit.
"Perhaps it's a lack of moisture and the fact people here water their lawns and various different things. Maybe some of those animals are looking for something a little more wet than what's in the woods right now," neighbor Tonkin said.
Gary Bower will be back on his feet in about a week.
The Northern Copperhead snake is said to be the most abundant of all the venomous snakes found in Pennsylvania. Copperheads are considered medium sized snakes, usually about three-feet long. It's most distinctive feature is it's copper-colored top.
If you see one, remember they are poisonous.
Bad Summer for Snakes

Busy little critters arn't they! For the education of the old Newt guy, does C-head Press belong in the Viper or Crotalid sub-section? {I can't get a 'search' done through the work-puter today} Thanks, Wes

WSFA (Montgomery, Alabama) 15 August 05 Woman recovers after being bitten by snake in mall parking lot
Montgomery, Ala. (AP): A 20-year-old woman is recovering in a Mongomery hospital after being bitten by a poisonous snake.
Christi Graham was on a break from her job at Hot Topic in Eastdale Mall Thursday when she tried to pickup the snake found in the parking lot.
The manager of Hot Topic, Billy Kidd, says Graham was still hospitalized over the weekend but is going to recover.
The snake was caught by Montgomery police officers and identified as a copperhead.
http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=3722045

WYFF (Greenville, S Carolina) 15 August 05 Girl Recovering From Playground Snakebite - Girl Stepped On Poisonous Snake
Pickens, S.C.: A five-year-old Pickens girl is recovering from a poisonous snakebite.
Sierra Bergholm was sent to the Greenville Memorial Children's Hospital last Thursday.
The incident happened on the A.R. Lewis Elementary School playground when Sierra stepped on a copperhead snake and it bit her foot.
"You could see the two little marks, where the fangs went in, cause she kept saying 'my foot, my foot,'"principal Kathy Brazinski said. "It was very scary, it was very scary. She was in a tremendous amount of pain."
Sierra was rushed to the hospital and received several doses of anti-venom. As of Friday night her foot was still swollen.
School custodians searched for the snake and found it buried in the mulch under the climbing tower on the playground.
Sierra's mom said Sierra is having nightmares about what happened.
"She did not sleep very well at all, she kept saying things like 'it's getting away' and stuff like that, and I knew almost immediately what she was dreaming about," Cynthia Gamble said. “At this point, she's already told me 'Mommy I’m not going back on that playground."
This is not the first copperhead found outside the school. Brazinski said she found one last year near a portable classroom and killed it with a shovel.
Copperheads are the most common poisonous snake in the eastern U.S., but their venom is rarely fatal.
http://www.thecarolinachannel.com/news/4853468/detail.html

MACON TELEGRAPH (Georgia) 16 August 05 Copperheads gather early in Ark. this year (Annie Bergman)
Little Rock (AP): It happens every year: large numbers of copperheads gather and move in unison to dens for hibernation. But it happens in October, not July or August. Now the common event has become an uncommon and inexplicable one.
"I know for a fact that all these snakes didn't just wake up one day and do this," said Chuck Miller, whose Marion County yard has been overrun with the pitvipers. "Something's making them do it. They know something we don't know. There's got to be something more to this."
Nearly 100 of the snakes are using a cedar tree as a sort of meeting place, and neither Miller, an outdoorsman and former snake owner, nor scientists who have traveled to the rural north central Arkansas site to study the phenomenon, know why.
Stanley Trauth, a zoology professor at Arkansas State University, said the snakes normally gather to move to hibernation sites in the fall. Trauth has traveled to Miller's property to conduct research on the snakes' behavior.
"With this hot weather we didn't anticipate such a grand movement of so many snakes. In the fall they aggregate in fairly large numbers, so it's quite an unusual event," Trauth said in a telephone interview Monday.
Miller agrees. "If it were October, no one would know about it. It wouldn't be that strange," he said.
When the snakes first started showing up three weeks ago, Miller said he was a little concerned that no one would believe how many were visiting the cedar tree, so he began collecting the reptiles. He saw 20 the first night, he said.
One of his friends contacted Trauth and the research began.
Trauth and one of his graduate students traveled to Miller's property and embedded a radio transmitter in one of the snakes for tracking purposes. Other snakes also had tags clipped to their scales.
Miller said seven of nine tagged snakes were taken a quarter-mile away from the tree and released, but have since returned to the tree and been recaptured.
Trauth said the copperheads gather at the tree to leave their scent. By rubbing the tree, other copperheads know that it is a marker on the way to a den site, he said.
But Trauth is only guessing that the snakes are preparing to move to a den for hibernation.
"All we can do is speculate as to what this is right now. This might be a precursor to an actual event. But having the numbers there that he's had, it just makes you wonder what's going on," Trauth said.
A gathering of copperheads like the one in Miller's yard has not been documented before, Trauth said. Though he can't yet explain why it's happening, he can say for sure it's not for mating or feeding.
All the snakes that have been gathering at the base of the tree are adult males. Copperheads also like to feed on cicadas, but the insects haven't appeared in the area in large numbers this year.
The best guess, Trauth said, is the snakes are moving to hibernate as usual - they're just doing it earlier than normal.
All Miller knows is, it's weird.
"It's like seeing a bigfoot or something walk across the yard; if you don't keep them, no one will believe you," he said.
Copperheads gather early in Ark. this year