Clearing the folder of just a handful of photos that didn’t fit into any particular theme, and had too little story behind them.
While out at Goose Creek Game Lands near the coast (not very close at all to Goose Creel State Park,) my brother and I were on the edge of a large pool where at least two northern water snakes (Nerodia sipedon sipedon) were intent on the area where we stood, repeatedly ducking beneath the surface and returning, often closer, sometimes from a different approach. I’d never seen such insistence from a snake, but having witnessed mating just a few days earlier, I searched the area for a female, to no avail. This one eventually came right up to the edge of the small retaining wall that I stood next to, less than a meter from my feet; had I been inclined and moved fast, I could have snagged it in the water. This would have earned me several exuberant bites, because water snakes are like that, but there was no particular gain to this so I let it be.
And I find as I check the EXIF info, this next one was taken on the same day, but ‘back home.’
After the drive back, my brother was still interested in exploring but we didn’t have a lot of time left in the day, so it was down to Jordan Lake around sunset, where this great blue heron (Ardea herodias herodias) posed against the reflection of the sky – which was a lot better-looking than sunset itself. My brother wanted to shortcut through the woods to get to the lake edge and thus never saw this scene.
Another just for giggles.
Had to show the fruits of my efforts, quite literally, because these are lemons on one of the trees that were overwintering in the greenhouse when they started to blossom, so they were hand-pollinated by me – clearly, this worked. And they have my nose, poor saps.