Cottonmouth is watching you through his opaque blue eyes (photo by Sam Boatman)
 

Walk away from the concrete and asphalt in The Villages and you will be greeted by an abundance of beautiful wildlife. But you sometimes have to look closely and carefully. This morning: the cottonmouth water moccasin's eyes are an opaque blue, which occurs when he is preparing to shed his skin.

Sam - If you're into it, there is a spectacularly lightening-blasted tree at the Polo Fields. Never seen anything like it. Split down the middle and with large bark 'shrapnel' flung out into the polo field.

I grabbed a couple photos but, you could do much better. It would get the lightning people on here pretty jazzed, I'd think. It's along the first North/South Road when you drive in.

Thank you. I relayed your message to Sam. Can you post any pictures here?

Ok, I now see the paperclip icon to do so. Coming thru. Second photo shows bark blown into the field.
Attachment 109592

Attachment 109593

I bet that will be cleaned up "pronto"

I don't think I would want to get that close to that snake.

It's been there for several days and isn't obstructing anything relevant.
Polo Grounds not operational right now so....
One day this week they'll likely haul it away.

Thank you very much. I just sent your 2 photos to Sam.

Sam says: If you have time, please say I said "Wow! Awesome! Thank you!!!!!"

It's quite a sculpture so, I thought he'd like it. Good backdrop too.

Happy to oblige.

Any other directions that Sam can follow to find this tree? He is there now.

From South (Main) entrance on Buena Vista, make the first left onto blacktop road that parallels the field.

From North entrance make a right onto that road. Can't miss the tree unless they took care of it this AM.

Thank you for the directions.

Cloudy eyes (blueish), indicate he is about to shed his skin.

Always best to look down when walking off the pavement in the south.