A Wildlife Story

We've developed a weather pattern lately in which we have a nor'easter about every five days or so. Today was the calm before the storm. I have personally developed a pattern that is sort of weather related, which is that when I go out to get the mail I check to see if there are any snakes basking on the slope down to the mailbox. The place where they sun themselves is a few feet away from the stone stairs I walk down to get to the street.

Actually, there's kind of a funny story about that... I may have mentioned that we built our house (with a lot of help), and when we bought the land that is now my glorious backyard there was nothing here in the way of human structures. The front of the lot had (has) bedrock along most of it, and the rest was a kind of steep hill. The neighborhood kids used to ride their bikes there, and there was a path where they would ride, and it was bare dirt, which means it was muddy whenever it rained. That was also the only way up into the lot, really, because the rest was kind of overgrown. So, we bought the land, and needed a way to get up there that didn't involve sliding back several steps for each one forward on a muddy slope. We started building a stone stairway, using the many, many, many rocks on our new property. Then we planted grass next to the stairs, to help prevent erosion. We didn't have a water source on the property yet, so we brought jugs of water from what was then home and would water the grass that way. One afternoon I was standing on the bottom step of the stone stairs, facing upward, watering the grass with my jug of water (I might have been using a watering can into which the jugs had been poured), and my husband was standing around talking to me.
     He said, "Take two steps forward and turn around."
    This was an odd request, but I did it, and then I looked down, and there on the ground at the bottom of the stairs was a snake, curled up and looking at me.
     I was kind of afraid of snakes (still am a little bit, really), and I can understand why my husband told me to do that. He wanted me to see that there was a snake behind me, but if he just told me to turn around, I might have stepped back first, and even if I didn't step back, I could have turned around, seen a snake practically right at my feet, and freaked.
     I wonder how long the snake had been there. Did it slither to that spot while was watering the grass? I feel like it must have, because surely I would have seen it otherwise? I would have had to have stepped over it to get onto the bottom step. Did my husband see it curl up there? I have never asked him. I should.
     That was the first snake I ever saw on our property. It was a ribbon snake or a garter snake. I get those confused.
     Anyway, I am a little bit afraid of snakes, but I still think they are kind of interesting and cool, and I know that most of my fear is unwarranted. Snakes can't eat me, and so they don't want to bite me. And yet, they are somehow just kind of nerve-wracking. Obviously I am getting more comfortable with them, though, due to constant exposure and greater rational thought.

The snake of the day will be at the end of the post, as usual.

I don't have a Backyard Bug of the Day today, because there was nothing really up to it. I happened to have my non-macro lens on the camera this morning, which was great for taking pictures of the snake–I could use the zoom and not have to get close, and thereby avoid scaring the snake away while still getting close-up shots. But then when I was on my way back into the house I saw a beetle on the front walk, and of course had the wrong lens on the camera to get a shot of it.

Here's what I got:

 This is just a test to see if you can spot it, and another demonstration of the frustrations of a bug photographer. It's just about in the center of the picture, in the space between the stones. Dark color. Anyway, I took this shot, asked the beetle to wait there, and went in the house to change to the macro lens. The beetle did not wait there, and when I came back out I couldn't find it, but I did find...

 ... a springtail...

 ... and a few ants, including this one carrying something in its mandibles. I

I did spot the beetle again, just as it crawled off the edge of the sidewalk and disappeared into the dirt.

 Next to the sidewalk was a little patch of snow (most of last week's snow has melted, but there are a few patches left), and there was a springtail on it, though not a snow flea kind of springtail.

 Having found so much going on on just a few square feet of sidewalk and nearby ground, I figured that my bug walk would be quite successful. Nope. The most exciting thing I found wasn't even an insect. It was a plant, in fact:

 One tiny female bloom on the hazelnut tree. It's not really a good time for it to be blooming, with snow and freezing temperatures coming, but it is still a charming little thing. Those petals (I guess that's what you'd call them) are each a couple of millimeters long. It's a tiny flower.

 The other interesting thing I found was something I found a couple of weeks ago: the eggs under the rotting log have changed. A few of them are kind of deflated (perhaps something ate the contents?), but one of them has turned orange. I still don't know if these are insect eggs, or amphibians, or what?

 And other than that, all I found were winter fireflies, and not as many as I have been seeing lately. Here's another shot showing the variation in size.

 Something I have noticed lately is that I have not seen any chipmunks around. The last couple of years we have had a chipmunk population bloom, which was caused, according to scientists, by the warm winters and bumper crops of acorns. Well, we had a pretty warm winter, all the recent snowstorms notwithstanding, but a poor acorn crop this past fall (possibly due to gypsy moth caterpillars?). I fear that perhaps a lot of the chipmunks may have starved this winter. On the other hand, there have been a lot of snakes in my backyard lately... I just don't know if those snakes are big enough to eat chipmunks. But then again, I haven't seen any chipmunks, and I don't think the snakes could have eaten all of them before I got to see any...

Anyway, there is some kind of little critter out and about in the backyard, a vole I am guessing. This trail has recently been spiffed up:

 

And now, Backyard Reptile of the Day:
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 The snakes can look a lot like fallen branches when they are strung out. And after all the storms, there are a LOT of fallen branches on the ground. But I know where to look for the snakes (one spot, anyway), so I was able to spot it.

 

 My guess would be that they are strung out or curled up based on their warming needs?

Later on I went out again and it was still there, but curled up this time.