Tuesday, September 18, 2012

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.
DSCN1719

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.
DSCN1722
Still, he was mellow and nuzzled us while we photographed him.
DSCN1725
DSCN1733
We let him go and he slid right back to those rocks.
DSCN1736

This dragonfly was on Andrea's arm the whole time.
DSCN1737

BULLFROG!!!!
DSCN1738

At another spot that is often good for us, I called for Andrea to photograph this nice Garter Snake!
DSCN1739

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!)-
DSCN1742

While Andrea nabbed a young Water Snake!
DSCN1744

We've had quite a few tandem grabs this year! They always make for nice multi-snake shots!
DSCN1750
DSCN1753

It should be noted that the Water Snake was sporting a full belly from breakfast! We let him go soon...
DSCN1756

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

Ernagerd!! American Toad!!
DSCN1762

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!
DSCN1765

I lunged again and came up with only one... the smaller guy had eluded me...
DSCN1768
This one's a beauty, though...
DSCN1770

The smaller one turned up again long enough for a photo;
DSCN1772
But then disappeared again!

I heard a slide through the bushes... another? Yep! This guy was different... right?
DSCN1773

Sure was! He was nippy, too! Hit my glasses, even!
DSCN1774

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?

BINGO!
YES!
DSCN1780
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!
DSCN1782
DSCN1783
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!
DSCN1784

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!
DSCN1792
DSCN1794
DSCN1797
DSCN1799
Check out the spider that walked into frame!
DSCN1805

A favorite Water Snake spot had one guy up on land...
DSCN1812
Who slid into the water when he saw us.
DSCN1813
DSCN1817
DSCN1818

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!
DSCN1820

BUFO AMERICANUS!!!!
DSCN1826

Hey, it's an honest to goodness Monarch!
DSCN1827

Further along, I flipped a massive rock and found... the smallest snake. Just a wee lil Garter!
DSCN1829
DSCN1835
I couldn't get him to show any interest in eating this worm!
DSCN1833
I wonder why...

HEY!! It's a Redback!!!
DSCN1840

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!
DSCN1847
DSCN1849

A particularly well composed Bufo shot...
DSCN1850

I heard another whoosh... a Water Snake!
DSCN1855
He gave me a small nip on the finger, but was fairly calm overall.
DSCN1859

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!
DSCN1864
I actually pulled out my snake stick to pick him up but realized he was another gentle giant!
DSCN1866
He was also very much  in a shed, so he was probably pretty confused!
DSCN1867
We put him down and he crawled right back to his resting spot, as if nothing had happened!
DSCN1874
DSCN1875

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)!
DSCN1877

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!



7 comments:

  1. ¡Las vívoras son cada vez más grandes!!!!!¡Vas a quedar sin nariz!!!ja ja besos Martha

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gracias Martha! Por suerte, como las serpientes más grandes, sigue siendo los pequeños que me muerden! Si esa gran serpiente mordió mi nariz, mi nariz se ha ido!

      XXOO

      Delete
  2. Awesome post! Great photos!! I love the olive and cinnamon garters, and the juvenile water snake! I only found one snake (garter) in the last three weeks! Plenty of Amphibians, but no snakes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Steve! We had very good luck this past weekend! I'm about to write up Cutler, with another 6 Garters! Oddly enough, not many 'phibs for us!

      Delete