What Are We Gonna Do Now? April 24th and 25th, 2025

My declaration that "we will not visit the dens at lunchtime anymore" sounded good on paper. I mean, it has become like shooting fish in a barrel. I usually say "no more local dens" this time of year. But if not the dens, where else can we go to, look around, and get back home all within (roughly) an hour? Thursday the 24th was another beautiful day and we just had to go out at lunch. We hadn't yet visited our local Snappers at the cemetery down the street this year, so that was our plan.

We're used to the Snappers there being very outgoing and they always come up to see us. Not so this time. I think they might have had other (sexy) things on their minds. We did see one (not Whitey) who promptly sway away from us.

Painted Turtles could be seen basking.

This was a popular spot. A Double-crested Cormorant (#44) was drying out but the turtles, Painters and Red-ears were creeping in. These were our first Red-ears on the year. Yes, I count them. They live here: lots of them and for a long time.

Eventually, the turtles took over.

We did see one more Snapper who ignored us. Also not Whitey.

The next day was almost as nice. Why not try the closed school that we'd first visited last year, home of many large Water Snakes? We'd only have about 15 minutes to poke around but that should be enough.

We walked the plank and out onto the island where a decent sized female Nerodia was resting with something in her belly. As I tried to maneuver myself for optimum photo angle, she took off like a flash, speedily side-winding into the water. I was left with just a head shot.

There were plenty of places to bask and the local Painters were taking advantage of that fact.

I'd commented that I was disappointed that we'd seen no frogs. It wasn't until I got home and uploaded the photos that I discovered that the knot on this log next to the Painted Turtle was, in fact, a large Bullfrog!

Gettin' old, all right. The frog's expression slays me.

We'd heard a few Blue Jays and this one (#45) was making a call neither of us recognised.

Our time was up. In the bushes on the way back to the car, this large (easily 3 feet) mama Water Snake was sunning. She was pretty mellow; she even let me remove a piece of garbage that was under her tail. (This place needs a good cleaning).

I'll leave with a close up of this perfect specimen.

Hmm... I wonder where else we can go on lunch breaks.