Re: Phone Camera Competition May 2020: Superpowers
 

Hmm... something does not quite add up here. If only I could put my finger on it... :D

Re: Phone Camera Competition May 2020: Superpowers
 

The use of powerful here is subjective. It's pretty mild when adminstred to a huge[1] animal like the "third chimp", yours truly, but very effective on the intended prey of the viper :D


[1] Contrary to what some people mistakenly believe humans are among the top fraction of percentile of animal size, there are just a handful of species that are larger in mass compared to the tens of thousands that are way teenier... go figure?

Re: Phone Camera Competition May 2020: Superpowers
 

How close did you get?
Looks like ~1m, while the snake seems to have noticed you and is moving toward you. I don't think I'd've had the guts to do take that picture.

Is rantakäärme (beach snake) one of them? I'm pretty sure we have seen them a few times in Helsinki/Lauttasaari, both in the water and on the beach.

Re: Phone Camera Competition May 2020: Superpowers
 

I went down on my knees and maybe about 70cm towards the snake. (this variety by the way is called "Kyy" in Finnish)

It would have been easier but I was on my daily run and I had my dog with me which I held by a very short leash behind my back with one hand while trying to get a good shot with the other hand. All the while Dora the dog was trying to nose up closer to the snake barking... difficult. I think the poor viper was really disturbed by us and I tried to make it quick in order not to shock her too much.

Kyys are really very peaceful and nice animals, so I had no need to fear her really... if one bites you it sure stings like hell but is no concern really; last summer I was stung by a wasp in my eye and boy that one hurt for a long time! :eek:


Yes, the other varieties are Rantakäärme and Tarhakäärme; both are more rare than Kyykäärme and non-poisonous. Very easy to tell apart from each other too, however many people don't know the difference but try to kill "the horrible snakes".
In reality all snakes are protected and should not be harrassed but people just fear them out of no reason, some even dislike Sisilisko which are really beautiful small lizards.

Re: Phone Camera Competition May 2020: Superpowers
 

Tarhakäärme is another name for rantakäärme, usually easy to recognise from the yellow marks at the neck. While adders can have a varying colouring with a clear zigzag pattern to completely black. They can also often be seen swimming.
The third one is kangaskäärme, who only live in Ahvenanmaa/Åland, not in mainland Finland.
And some might think that vaskitsa or copper snake (slowworm) is a snake because it looks like one, but it's a lizard without legs.

Re: Phone Camera Competition May 2020: Superpowers
 

Thanks for correcting me!

I mis-remembered the Kangaskäärme, mainly as it is so rare and does not live on mainland at all. Now as I checked it, indeed Rantakäärme used to be called Tarhakäärme but in fact they are the same species.

Really nice article in wikipedia I ran across, in the olden times in Finland people used to have tame snakes of the Tarhakäärme variety on farms, to keep the rodents away. They were fed and cared for and even lived in animal shelters and inside farmhouses!
translation of the article

Re: Phone Camera Competition May 2020: Superpowers
 

I should have had the Superpower of these guys. I think they never drop a phone. The Screen of my Pro¹ is now unfortunately damaged :mad:. I hope to get a spare one.

http://talk.maemo.org/attachment.php...1&d=1590159658

Re: Phone Camera Competition May 2020: Superpowers
 

I'm back in business. Changed to a working N900 with camera! Still some configuring to do and have been messing with updates and repositories which vanish or change to unusable and then trying to figure how to get them working again. Not a single time have I managed to do all right on the first time. In these couple of years flashed about 30 times.But now almost done again. Have to take a picture soon.

Re: Phone Camera Competition May 2020: Superpowers
 

As a child, I always thought that viper bite would be roughly the same as bee sting. Nowadays I work as an nurse on ICU, and I have seen some patients due to viper bites. While it really is really uncommon to die because of viper bite, it still can cause massive swelling, moderate pain and even symptoms of hypovolemic shock which sometimes need ICU treatment. So I have been quite surprised on how serious it may be.

Re: Phone Camera Competition May 2020: Superpowers
 

This is my definition of "superpowers". You put a one year old potato in the dirt and three weeks later you got this. Another 4-6 weeks, you will have an excellent meal from those plants. :D
Xperia X, Sailfish stock photo app, no editing.



https://svenskasprakfiler.se/show/Superpowers.jpg