This might fall under the category of borderline heresy for a birder, but my goal for going ‘birding’ is not always to see birds. Most of the time I just want to be outside on a nice day with good people, and birds are a pseudo-justification to get outdoors. In fact, some days I prefer to see if I could find something of interest besides birds. We can call it broadening my horizons, or maintaining balance in my interests. The ‘distractions’ could include flowers, mushrooms, interesting ferns, deer, foxes, coyotes, turtles, snakes, butterflies, dragonflies, calling frogs, crabs, or it could be a peaceful day out on the water in a kayak or canoe. June is a particularly good time for distractions, after the madness of May migration, when the focus turns to the local breeders and the occasional unexpected late migrant or lost vagrant bird. This year the main ‘distraction’ for me has been finding some of our local snakes. Hey, reptiles are interesting too, even if they don’t have feathers.
Here is a Northern Pine Snake, a threatened species in NJ. This one was probably between 4 and 5 ft.long.
Here’s a pair of Timber Rattlesnakes. They are an endangered species in NJ. It’s an interesting day when you find a single snake, but when you see two of them together, it’s pretty special.
A Black Rat Snake. They are not very uncommon here, and are an adept climber.
A coiled Timber Rattlesnake. It’s times like this that I’m glad that I have a large lens. I wouldn’t want to take this photo using my iPhone.
Closeup of the the end that you want to see.
A Corn Snake partly in the shadows. Isn’t that pattern fantastic? This species is also endangered in NJ.
Here I am floating in a very large ripe banana. This was on the Wading River, one of the classic NJ Pinelands float trips.
Here’s an Eastern Hognose Snake that swam across the river in front of our kayaks, and then began flaring its throat as we approached it on the bank.