On February 4th, it was pushing 50 degrees and it was sunny. My boss actually let us all out of work an hour early, but I didn't have my camera with me. But the next day, Tuesday the 5th, had similar conditions and I excused myself from work early again and headed to the dens... with my camera. I got stuck in some traffic and the shadows were getting pretty long by the time I arrived, but it was still warm, roughly 45°. I made my way to the den sites.
Second site, laying in a fading patch of sunlight... a February Garter.
Success! Though I felt bad about seeing it without Andrea.
On the way out, I saw a half dozen deer waking up and foraging.
Then record cold. Snow. Ice. Shit.
February 16th was warm and sunny... and a Saturday! But we had a tax appointment and then I had an afternoon gig, so we couldn't go out. Plus, we'd both been sick for weeks. But the next day, the 17th, it was sunny, if cold. We hit the dens despite it being a very brisk 35° on this Sunday afternoon.
This hole in Nerodia Valley had obviously had some coming and going on Saturday. Leaves were pushed in.
It wasn't until we got back the same spot I'd been lucky with 12 days earlier that we found a February snake for Andrea. Warming on the hillside was the very same Garter!
Without bothering him, we looked him over for scrapes or injuries or anything that would explain his urge to grab some Vitamin D, but he looked pretty clean. Just a sun worshipper, I guess. Like me.
On Saturday, February 23rd, we had an extra special treat in store. The son we never wanted, Matt, was going to be in town for a day and wanted to hitch up for a couple of hours. Hey, why not hit the dens? He hadn't seen a Massachusetts snake in many years. The problem was, we got snow a couple of days ago and even though the temps were going to be in the low 40s with sunny breaks, we doubted we could find him anything.
The greatest sighting of the month... a Sun Bear!
It was damn good to see the little bastard again!
We tromped through the snow, knowing our chances were pretty slim, but we gabbed and enjoyed catching up. Making our way over to that den site, I proclaimed "If we're going to see anybody, it will be here."
Guess who was up...
Yes, that's the same guy. Again, we looked him over but he looks fine. Andrea broke our rule of "no handling near dens" just to see if he was frozen there. No, his tongue came out and he moved away, cold though he was.
So, that's our February. A son we never wanted sighting and the same snake three times!!! No complaints here.
On a side note, two of my photos are hanging in a bank for a month as part of an exhibition. How cool!
