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Nerodia sipedon
Northern Water Snake, Basking after a meal.
I was actually out trying to photograph the Atlantic Salmon Run, however, it was a very slow morning, so I decided to really look around at the environment I found myself in. Often times we as humans are so busy looking at one thing we don't take time to notice the natural beauty all around us. this album is an expression of that. Taking the time to breathe in the air, look for subtle changes and splashes of color, or even that unmoving live object. I happened upon the North American water snake by chance and circumstance. It was basking and drying off, while digesting something it had recently eaten. As I was knee deep in the creek, waiting for the fish to come up through the shallows, I saw the log it was on, and thought that would be an awesome picture. It was not until after I had snapped several shots that I noticed the snake, laying there, doing what it does by blending in with it's surroundings. A lesson learned. Please take the time to enjoy that which you are surrounded by, you might be pleasantly surprised by what you see.
5 Comments
Brandon, we have a new mission for Snakes of the United States created by the Center for Snake Conservation that you might like to add this beauty & your other wild snake spottings to - http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/1202...
i've learned you have to be a little on the crazy side to get the good pics. doing things like freezing your fingers off at 12am in the middle of november while sitting on a beaver dam trying to get just the right shot. ;-)
Wow! That's how you get the good pics I guess!
I was actually knee deep in the water water about three feet from the snake while taking the pictures. ;-) Snakes don't bother me much. Honestly very little in nature creeps me out anymore. Well, Maggots do, for some reason I just get that creepy sick feeling when I see them! Even though they are natures cleaners, they still are pretty gross. LOL
Yikes! Hope you had a lot of zoom on this one haha. I can't believe how big water snakes can be! I have a pic of the eastern water snake up and they are huge!