This post was THREE YEARS in the making! 9-15-2012

I just erased a half hour's writing, so I'm pissed as I try to remember the brilliance I had written before....

Anyway... blah, blah, blah- we went to Borderland and got there at noonish. It rained in the AM so it was moist, though the pond was still low. We saw a Water Snake between some rocks.


I gently extricated him, though I bent a scale and felt bad about it. He had enough troubles as it was. It looked as though he'd retained an eye cap during a shed and had an infected eye.

Still, he was mellow and nuzzled us while we photographed him.


We let him go and he slid right back to those rocks.


This dragonfly was on Andrea's arm the whole time.


BULLFROG!!!!


At another spot that is often good for us, I called for Andrea to photograph this nice Garter Snake!


I went in for him, while Andrea went around the other side of the bush... and we made another tandem grab! I got the Garter (who also got me on the thumb!)-


While Andrea nabbed a young Water Snake!


We've had quite a few tandem grabs this year! They always make for nice multi-snake shots!



It should be noted that the Water Snake was sporting a full belly from breakfast! We let him go soon...


OK- this is where I erased everything before. Let's try again!

Ernagerd!! American Toad!!


So, right nearby I lunged for another Garter, but missed. We saw him not far away though... and there was a small friend with him!


I lunged again and came up with only one... the smaller guy had eluded me...

This one's a beauty, though...


The smaller one turned up again long enough for a photo;

But then disappeared again!

I heard a slide through the bushes... another? Yep! This guy was different... right?


Sure was! He was nippy, too! Hit my glasses, even!


Anyone who reads this blog (and besides me and Andrea, there really isn't anyone!) knows that for about the last three years, we've been trying to get a picture of a snake biting me in the nose! This feisty little fella seemed like a good candidate! Would he come though?


YES!

I had kind of thought that a snake would bite the ball of my nose but this lil devil had me right by the nostril!! Owwww!


We laughed our asses off, even as I had to lay my face onto the ground so he'd let go! Success at last! What could possibly top that? Eyeball? Earlobe? Scrotum? Errr... no.

So, after this first 1/2 hour (!!!!) of success, we started down the REAL trails. We saw a pile of Painted Turtles!


Andrea found this beautiful (and nippy) olive and cinnamon Garter Snake! I have to post lots of pics, because it's such a gorgeous snake!




Check out the spider that walked into frame!


A favorite Water Snake spot had one guy up on land...

Who slid into the water when he saw us.




Some family's brat was throwing stones into the water and I got all passive-aggressive and the father gave me the "Hey, pal" bit, which I ignored. Hey. if you can't control your spawns, don't bring them out. Period.

Want to see the cutest Green Frog ever? Here he is!


BUFO AMERICANUS!!!!


Hey, it's an honest to goodness Monarch!


Further along, I flipped a massive rock and found... the smallest snake. Just a wee lil Garter!


I couldn't get him to show any interest in eating this worm!

I wonder why...

HEY!! It's a Redback!!!


We saw another Garter, but he really showed us who was boss and we didn't get a picture. Jerk.

This Green Frog, however, sat right in the path while Andrea got all up in his grill and got some beautiful shots! No zoom here... just inches-away photography!



A particularly well composed Bufo shot...


I heard another whoosh... a Water Snake!

He gave me a small nip on the finger, but was fairly calm overall.


So, we usually have a bonanza upon getting ready to leave Borderland. Would we today? I mean, we started off with a bang! Not much there at the end this time... till we saw this guy in the bushes!

I actually pulled out my snake stick to pick him up but realized he was another gentle giant!

He was also very much  in a shed, so he was probably pretty confused!

We put him down and he crawled right back to his resting spot, as if nothing had happened!



We poked around the water for about 15 more minutes, talking with some hikers, and on the way out, Mr. Bigg was crawling down from his resting spot, hopefully to find a place for the night (or start that shed)!


So, getting there late and leaving at dinner time didn't seem to harm our hike! Oh, and it was the first day of National Snake Count Week, to which we could add 12! Not a bad hike! But really... we got the nose shot, so everything else was gravy!