A Few bits on Scottish Environmental Conservation

[BoldHighlander]

There's no need to go tromping around raising a great noise all the time.

Unless your in known bear country. Most attacks (other than getting between mama & her cubs, or a predatory bear) is from a surprise encounter (for both parties involved).

Regarding adders, I've seen plenty of rattlesnakes in my day, darned near stepped on one on a trail a few years ago, just after it had killed a gopher. It hadn't started eating it yet. I saw the gopher and stepped over it. Two seconds later I saw the head of the snake and covered the next ten yards REALLY fast! . The snake never rattled at me.

I lived for a time in Saugus (CA). The house I lived in had a big scrubby hill behind it. In the afternoon you could hear the snakes rattling. My roomies had a pair of dogs, and I was told if I ever saw the dogs act funny & head into the house it meant a snake was in the yard. Never saw any, only heard them, so I really never gave them much thought.

I use to watch roadrunners run up along the fence top to that hill & go hunting dinner