HOORAY - THE FIRST SNAKE OF THE YEAR!!!

March is early enough for me!

For those of you who haven't followed Hive account@papa-pepper for more than six months or so, you should know ahead of time, in warmer weather I post a lot of snake posts! A lot! I like just about every animal, but reptiles and amphibians are some of my favorite. Since we just found this snake, that can only mean one thing... more are on their way!

THIS ONE IS A GREAT START TO THE YEAR

Yesterday I took a walk along a stream with a few of the Hive account@little-peppers. Mostly we caught some minnows and a few frogs, but at one point we just barely caught a glimpse of something plopping into the water. I was just able to notice a quick flash of orange disappear beneath a pile of underwater leaves. "Snake!" I shouted to my little helpers and was soon feeling around under the water with both arms in the stream up to my elbows. The commotion scared the snake out and we soon saw this beautiful, long Northern Water Snake gliding along the bottom of the stream. I jumped across to the other side and was able to grab it. Late last night I tried to get some good photos of it. Here they are.

A ROUGH LIFE

If you look closely, you can see that this snake has had a rough life. First off, her left eye is glossed over. If both eyes were in this condition it would just mean that she was preparing to shed. However, it is not common to find only one eye like this. Perhaps she was struck in this eye or maybe has an infection of some sorts. I'm not sure, but I hope that it gets better for her. Also, in a few other photos, you can see a scar on her back. I'm not sure about that one either, but far too often wounds on animals like this can be caused by humans. That is one reason that I like to educate people and expose them to these creatures. This one is completely non-venomous and poses no real threat to people. Even when we found it, it tried to run away from us and I had to go in the creek after it. If you leave these creatures alone, most of the time they will do the same to you. Here are a few more of my favorite shots.

FLASH-BLOCK!

I wasn't sure how the flash would look on the shiny scales of the snake, so I tried a few photos where I blocked the flash with my other hand. They turned out kind of interesting, so I've included them here. See what you think.