First finds of 2014!

[spyderk]

And to make it even better, we found them on our new property. Earlier today my 8-year-old daughter came flying into the house, telling me they found a garter snake. I flew out after her, camera in hand, but it had disappeared under my son's "careful" watch. She was very disappointed, but I told her it was a GOOD sign that we saw something on our property.

Later some friends came over and we took them for walk in the woods since they haven't seen the trails or ponds yet. As the kids were up ahead, my friend said, "did you hear that?" and I looked to my right and whispered, "snake!!" and gave her the camera. I didn't want to alert the kids yet, since there were 7 of them and their arrival on the scene might disrupt my chances of catching it.

It was headed away through the brush so I took off after it. The kids saw the commotion and came over as I came back to the trail. I was a little bit excited and saw that my friend had the camera so I held it up high for her to take a picture of. It looks silly on the picture, but there you can see how excited I was to have caught it! I got musked but it didn't attempt to bite and calmed down quite nicely, enough for my kids to hold.

We got a few pictures of it (will post more in a second) and put it back where it had been. My friend loved using my new camera (Canon EOS Rebel T3i), and said she felt like she was a photographer for National Geographic because they were turning out pretty nicely.

Next find will have to go in the next post.

 

[spyderk]

And if you are wondering, that is MY kid investigating her nose!

So later on in the day I took my son out to look for more critters. Our ponds have been bursting with frog songs for a few days, so I was amazed we hadn't seen one yet. When we reached the 3rd pond, he found one! It was a nice little model for me as I moved around it, trying to get some good pictures.

Here is the wood frog, and the rest of the snake pictures.

 

[spyderk]

Just a few more.

It was an exciting day, even though it was just 2 animals. We are so happy to be living in the country now, doing this kind of stuff whenever we get the chance.

 

[MysticExotics]

Great photos and great finds!

 

[spyderk]

Thanks! It seemed this day would never come. We had 16 inches of snow Thursday!

 

[hypnoctopus]

Your enthusiasm for herps always makes me smile. Whenever you describe your actions, it always sounds exactly like something I would do! I hope my future children will enjoy them just as much as yours do.

Nice pictures!

 

[spyderk]

I should rewrite the part where I said I gave her my camera. I nearly tossed it at her, so great was my enthusiasm. Good thing she's camera savvy and figured out what to do, because I was busy!

Thank you! It is the most fun thing to find them in the wild. I don't have a lot of experience but I am hoping to change that by exploring our property here and then branching out to a nearby state park and maybe even going further south in WI.

 

[Rich Z]

Just something special about finding living creatures on your own land, isn't it? Kind of makes it feel like they are family.

 

[Tavia]

Neat finds! And great pictures, I was just going to ask what kind of camera you are using.

 

[Elsa]

Great pictures, looks like the day was a fun adventure!

 

[spyderk]

Just something special about finding living creatures on your own land, isn't it? Kind of makes it feel like they are family.

It really does! The kids wanted to keep the snake, but one of them realized that it actually was "our" snake in a way, so it was fine to let it go and make more snakes for us to enjoy.

Thank you all for the comments! We hope to have many more days like this.

 

[Rich Z]

Yep. I've had people want to pay me to collect certain local animals for them and I declined. I tell them that they can't pay me enough to compensate the enjoyment I will have seeing those animals again in the wild. That includes even the little brown back skinks and green anoles that abound around here. Heck, I could sit on the porch and watch the 6-lined racerunners scampering about all day long.