But we wanted to swim, so we got out of the house early and went to our old favorite haunt. We arrived at about 9 AM and took the trail towards a place where snakes are always about.
On the way, one garter led me astray and made me trip. Asshole. The meadow has turned into a full-on body of water in the past two wet years but the frogs didn't seem to mind.
the frog in the foreground of this shot was large... the guy in the back was a monolith... I couldn't even see all of him. Biggest bullfrog I have ever seen...
There was plenty of fin action, too...
We found the snake area, but some other folks had settled there... folks happy to share a spot with snakes, so they were OK in my book! True to form, there were some snuggly garters.
We took the next opening and made ourselves at home. Curiously, there was a female mallard duck in the growth next to our rocks. She didn't seem to mind sharing...
OK... it gets just a bit too cute here...
We saw a small duck across the pond and could hear it chirping. The momma duck was cooing softly, but it was enough to attract the young 'un and he came over towards us.
He then nestled into the bushes with mum for a rest.
We took a swim, and hung out with our avian friends sharing our spot. We had a snack.
A garter snake, intent on getting somewhere came into our space, not noticing us.
Sadly, we didn't get it on film, but he went across to the other side of our space and bumped into the baby duck... getting air! Duckie was off to swim some more after that wake-up call!
Then he came back and started being too cute for words. He stood there and groomed, stretched and looked adorable with us. Folks walking by thought it was our pet duck. I was saying what a chick magnet baby ducks were where a man stopped and gasped and ooh'd and ahh'd.
Click on these to see the whole set on Flickr- too cute...
Here's a two minute vid of cuteness...
Another garter, full of something yummy, came by...
He got startled and turned back and bumped into the momma duck. She went into the water and answered our question. We thought she might be injured because she wouldn't move. I guess it was because she was staying put for Junior's sake.
On the way out, we checked our basking pals again...
and saw some lovely dragonflies
And hey... it's an ant, but shit... Andrea was on FIRE with the camera and this shot is awesome!
Snakes caught... zero! Snakes enjoyed... all of them! It ain't all about picked them up, getting musked and bitten and pissing off wee squamates.
I'm glad you put the video in there. You should post these to your Facebook page when you write them up! Get some readers!
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