Green Frog

taken 25 May 2009

Identification issues

Part of my serious backlog of photos and rather inconsistent posts can be blamed on my difficulty identifying what’s in my pictures. I go through the field guides and find possible identities, but often these identities are so similar I can’t tell which is accurate if any. This weekend, however, I found a website - Pennsylvania Wildlife,  and am completely excited about how much information is there along with loads of pics. Adding the site info to what I’ve learned in field guides and I’m feeling rather confident in labeling many more of my photographs. How did any amateur figure out anything before the internet?!

Northern Ringneck snake

Moving rocks around in May 2009 led to uncovering this snake. Took me a while to figure out where its head was until I realized that yellow stripe at the right of its main body is also part of the snake.

Worm Millipede

While digging out and rebuilding a stone fire ring at one of our campsites last week, I found a couple of these millipedes.

Canadian Geese

We often have flocks of these geese stop by on their way north or south during the spring or fall.

These guys visited us in the fall of 2008 before moving on. But sometimes a pair decides to take up residence at the lake. Last year one such pair had 5 goslings that began their lives here. Unfortunately, a predator apparently ended their lives early as every few days the brood dwindled until only the parents were left. This year another couple (or perhaps the same one) had three goslings and they have survived to be 3-4 weeks old which is twice as long as the goslings last year. They just might make it to adulthood.

Northern Water Snake

Ok, I am not a fan of snakes. They kind of creep me out and when I come across them unexpectedly (which is pretty much the only way I find them), they startle me greatly. However, I am also fascinated by nearly all living creatures so if I have my camera handy and once my adrenaline has settled from the initial scare, I will do what I can to document my find. Thank heavens for digital zoom ;)

Discovery of the dude below resulted in an expletive being vocalized while I jumped back. I had just pushed my boat into the water, was still bent over with my hand on the boat’s edge when I looked down and saw what had curled up under my boat now just three feet (or less) from my face. The thing did not move at all during my startled reaction, my minute or two of regrouping, and the first couple minutes of taking pictures (I had my camera in my boat). It flinched just enough to poke its head out of the grass after I tapped it with a stick in hopes of getting it to stretch out. I was not brave enough to interact with it any further. Perhaps after taking enough pictures, one day I will overcome my snake fears. I’m not holding my breath.

taken 6 June 2010

Easter eagle

With an unseasonably and quite pleasantly warm Easter weekend and nieces in town for the holiday, we held the traditional egg hunt at the lake this year. 

The youngest working hard to fill her basket.

Just as we arrived and headed towards the eggs, a bald eagle swooped in not more than 100 feet from us with its wings fully spread and looking majestic as the species almost always does in pictures.  I think the bird was as surprised to see us as we were to see it. With a graceful u-turn, the eagle headed away without any encore fly-overs. I had my camera in hand, but in turning it on some setup screen showed up that I couldn’t get rid of in time to take a picture. Argh. I had heard of this bird being sighted a couple times last summer, but I never caught a glimpse. This is actually the first time I’ve seen an eagle of any kind in the wild. Maybe someday it will show itself again when my camera and I are ready. I can at least hope…