It Ain't Over Till the Fat Snake Hisses. 11-4-2018

It was cool, but sunny. 52° to be exact. But the sun was shining and we know where the local snake dens are. Why not? As an added bonus, the rain that drenched us the day before should have stirred up a few salamanders, too. So we hit our local den spot a little after noon on this brisk Sunday.

The sun was shining in all of the right places so we hurried to them, only stopping to flip a few logs along the way. Redbacks were abundant (plentiful Plethodons)... check out all of the life under this first flip.


A few more Redbacks.



The sun was painting the valley so we went to look around the den entrances that we know of. Andrea realized all of a sudden that two Garters were at her feet, the first one being fairly large.

This little fella was handsome, too.


A known Water Snake den entrance (dentrance?) had a noggin that had inched out...


I'm glad I know where that hole is exactly; here is the big picture.


The trail was a little tricky. A lil something was in the way.


We went down by the Cottonwood Dens. I walked right past a large Garter gal who was seen by Andrea.


Surprisingly, she was the only one out at this site. The sun was hitting it just right.

Out behind the Rock Wall Dens, this Garter couple were spooning. She of the stub tail, he of the skinny.

A close-up of her, flattened for optimum sun-catching.


We were already satisfied so we turned back, hoping to see an Ambystoma among the salamander sightings. First up, however, was another stunning and oddball Redback. Check out the cream coloring on the back.

Another color variation I'd never seen before.

We got to our final flipping spot. It has stones, so we were only going to lift the low hanging fruit, being extremely careful of anything that might be underneath. Andrea found this Redback doing a decent 4-Toed impression.


Then we found our first Ambystoma of November, a Blue-spotted all tangled up with a couple of Redbacks. (Were the Redbacks Tangled Up in Blue?)

Yes, that is a fairly small Bluie.

Then we flipped this. I sense a theme.


And that was our Sunday. Not too shabby for a day in the low-50s. We'll not be over-visiting the dens this year. We might go back on a sunny December day just for the novelty but I prefer to let the animals have a safe rest until Spring. Hopefully, they (and we) will survive the winter to enjoy life again in the woods next year.