Knowing that I’d be tied up for the latter part of the week, I went out today to find a subject for the Estate Find, and/or see if any other snakes had emerged. I wasn’t successful on either count, finding only the typical subjects of the property so far, but a little later on I almost casually got the Find for this week, so no issues there. This guy had to be featured, though.
Naturally, one of the hundreds to thousands of Carolina anoles (Anolis carolinensis) that litter the property – seriously, the numbers are huge – but this one looking quite decrepit. This is only because it’s in the middle of molting, the large patches of its old skin sloughing away. I saw this from a short distance and, while it was right where I expected to see anoles (atop the concrete bunny alongside the lamppost on the front walk, where they are routinely found,) I couldn’t identify it until I got the long lens on it, when it all became clear.
Amusingly, this guy gave a couple of flashes of his dewlap as I stood there, though no other anoles were in the immediate vicinity – I suspect it was actually trying to dislodge more of the dead skin; right after this, it turned and shook a couple of legs, breaking free more of the flakes. This one was fairly large but not the largest that I’ve seen right around there, and I believe that dewlap pins it down as a male.
Down by the pond where I wasn’t finding snakes, I did at least spot this guy, doing a pretty good camouflaging job as a cypress knee:
A yellow-bellied slider (Trachemys scripta scripta) of course, only a little bigger around than my palm, and complacent enough to stay put while its brethren had all abandoned their perches on logs and snags at my approach. I hadn’t gotten too close, though, so we’re not talking totally complacent. But quite a collection of vegetation on the carapace, there.
And a few dozen meters away,
For the population of turtles within this pond, there are too few basking locations, which we intend to remedy fairly soon, but it means the competition for spots is fierce. Well, it’s hard to use that word with turtles, but there remains a very slow race to see who gets to the best spots first when the sun comes out. This pair was also fairly mellow with my approach, and in fact didn’t budge as I circled around them on the end of the pond, though I was still ten meters off – they get credit since most of the others bail long before that distance has closed. The Girlfriend, by the way, loves that little, “Look, Ma! No feet!” pose that they adopt, presumably to get more sun on their actual skin, but maybe it’s a sexual thing – who knows?
So, nothing new (that will come Friday,) but at least more spring-like. We’re getting there.