The Right Place...(continued)


lil' yellowtail


Steve with some low-hanging fruit


Blackie on high


poking around, precariously perched...
 

Steve was up on a waist-high rock shelf, intent on investigating a deep vertical crack, while I checked the lower level. "Mike! Baby Cottonmouth!" He pointed to a little yellow-tail, closer to me than him, and on the crawl towards the great big warm afternoon. I took his picture, and then looking towards Steve, I grinned. "Baby Black Rat! Two feet in front of you!" I took a couple shots of the neonate rat snake. "Mike!" Steve whispered at me, pointing towards the crevice. There was another little Timber, just crawling out!

To say the least, we were somewhat taken aback by this thirty second trifecta, but that didn't stop us from grinning from ear to ear as we circled the day's second rattler for some pictures. We knew we were in the middle of something special, a rare day, the second warm day after a cold week amid autumn's heyday.

At this point we just settled back, ready to accept whatever else would come our way. What would be next? Here came a series of young adult Black Rat Snakes in a very short section of bluff, either out sunning or coming out of the earth to join the big basking party. A few were in reach, but most were up high on the rock face. Who could tell how many Pantherophis were out and about on this mile of high stone?

Watching the base of the bluffs never fails to pay off - it's a natural highway for serpents, and that's where we spotted our third neonate Timber of the day, coiled up just outside a small crevice, soaking up the sunlight. This one had a lovely rust-colored stripe down the dorsal. A few pictures and we left the snake right where we found it.

Not too much further and we ran out of bluff, and before us a wooded valley sloped away towards another section of rock some distance away. It was time for us to turn around and return - at this time of the year, the window of available light was very narrow, with the sun disappearing behind the tree line around five o'clock. Now it would be interesting to see if any of the snakes we met on the way in would still be around on the trip out.

 

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