Warm Weather and Wildlife

 
Worked all morning and most of the afternoon between the two jobs, but then I had time to take a nice walk. Went 4.75 miles. Thought it was going to be 5, but the last loop I can tack on my road route is more like an extra quarter mile instead of a half. I'll have to walk around that loop twice.

It was 68 degrees with a light breeze and it felt SO good. The critters are loving the fresh greens brought about by the weekend rain and this sun. Not a lot of green yet, but enough. There were squirrels everywhere! Here's a common gray squirrel that held still for me. Squirrels always look worried.



The best was three rabbits together on a lawn. I got decent pictures of two of them. This one is searching for just the right snack to satisfy the craving for spring greens.



When he decided I was too close, of course he showed me his tail and left, which is why they are called cottontail rabbits.



His playmate just sat quietly beneath a still-gray bush. I enhanced the contrast a little, but you can tell that it would be nearly invisible in this location.



I also saw my first thirteen-lined ground squirrel of the year, but couldn't get a picture. I did get pictures of a lot of very colorful things that hold still nicely. Thought hard about which to feature, but today, the wildlife wins, even if it's very common.

	See Fur, Feather, Spikes and Storms
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Catching the Blues

 
No, I'm not sad, but I am really tired with non-stop duties since this morning. Out working today... many shades of blue. Big Star Lake was intense, then Lake Michigan so pale you can't tell water from sky. Bass Lake was something in between. Have I mentioned that I love blue?







Bedtime for me.

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The Not So Quality Part of Yesterday

 
There was one part of yesterday that was sad, but I'm going to turn it into a learning opportunity. The warm sun called out the snakes as well as my turtle. I saw three different ones, and all were dead in the road where they had just been trying to take the chill off their bones. Literally. Snakes are cold-blooded. Two were garter snakes and not so good to look at. The other one wasn't.

This is a blue racer. Very much alive. Picture taken several years ago.



This is not a baby blue racer. Picture taken yesterday. Looks alive, but it's not. Also, you might think I'm nuts to point out that it's not a blue racer. It looks very different.



However... Baby blue racers don't look anything at all like adults. Really small ones like they've been covered with those little checkerboard Italian tiles like you see in ethnic restaurant floors. I know this for a fact because once long ago some little boy brought a blue racer in the house where it got loose. Turns out it was a pregnant mama, and she had a whole swarm of little blue racers under the piano. Blue racers are ovoviviperous, which means they don't lay eggs, but the young are born live.

At the time, I never thought to take pictures of the wonderful mass of worm size babies. Perhaps I didn't have any film. It was back in those days. Remember them?

Anyway, between the checkerboard stage and the adult stage there is a phase that looks a lot like this small snake. I wanted this to be a blue racer to show you, but I didn't want it to be a blue racer because they are becoming quite rare. I really hate seeing them killed in the road.

So the good news is- this is NOT a blue racer, but it took me all evening to figure that out. You might wonder why it took so long. Well, when you are trying to learn something without someone who really knows how to point out the things to look for, it can take a while. Now that I have it figured out it seems quite simple.

This is a baby Northern Water Snake, Nerodia sipedon. And it doesn't look much like the adult of that species either.

I have some decent pictures of adult Northern Water Snakes, but I'm out of time to hunt them up tonight. And the best pictures I ever took of them were with my very first digital camera that saved pictures to a floppy disk. And the disk got corrupted. That's really sad. Lin, you need to cover your ears, because they were of one of these snakes eating a frog.

And unless you are a frog or some other small critter, these snakes are not dangerous, although they will try to bite if you pick them up, like any snake. However, they are not poisonous.

Anyway, the adults are much darker and the bands fade and become barely visible. They may approach pure black in color. Each scale has a little keel that breaks up the light so they look much duller than many snakes.

Back to the one I found yesterday. After I realized it was dead, I had the chance to look at it really carefully, and take several pictures. Good thing I did. Here's the key feature that cinches the identification as a Northern Water Snake. See the pattern on its belly?



Those little half moons on each side of the center line are definitive. Even the adults have them. They may range in color from light rusty, through brown, to black.

So now you know.

	See A Visit from Mr. Blue
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First Turtle of the Year!

 
The point of this blog is to find quality in every day, but I have to say that today was awesome without having to put any effort into it.

In the first place, I felt good. Really good. No zombieland from the Friday night work. The weather was wonderful- warm but breezy. I dried two loads of clothes outside in no time at all. (Yes, I know it's Sunday, but you have to dry clothes when the weather cooperates.)

This afternoon I took a 4.5 mile hike (just a roadwalk... they are free- no drive to get there).

Walking past a little nothing of a wetland. It's probably barely wet in summer. That doesn't mean it doesn't have value.



I spotted a hump of something on a log in the middle. Looked turtle-ish, but we haven't been overwhelmed with warm days yet. It also looked big.



Too far away to ID till I got home and could look at the enlarged pictures. It's a common painted turtle, but I learned some things because I decided to just double check the book, even though this one is familiar. I learned a lot! (another element of a quality day- to learn something new)



First of all, the Eastern Painted Turtle,Chrysemys picta picta, is not exactly the same as this one, the Midland Painted Turtle. This is a subspecies Chrysemys picta marginata.

You can only see one of the differences in these pictures. It's visible in this final shot. I like the reflection. The turtle just stayed all stretched out. The sun on its neck must have felt good. But the thing you can see is the dark blotch on the center of its plastron (the chest/belly plate). You can just see a little of it, but even that also reflects.



The other significant difference is in the arrangement of the scutes (the sections of its shell). This turtle wasn't showing me its back, but if you go to Details from the Bike Ride, there is a good picture of Chrysemys picta marginata. I'm sure of the ID, because the scutes are alternating... the point of one comes into the middle of the next one. In the eastern species they are all lined up evenly.

Another interesting feature is that the Peterson guide says the record Midland Painted Turtle is 7 5/8 across. I have to say that this one was pretty good sized. Right up there near that, would be my guess.

A lot of birds were singing, the peepers were peeping, and one of these days some serious green is going to start happening. I just know it!

I ordered maps for my next hike with Marie. It won't be the mountain experience of last year. We'll be doing a piece of the much tamer Buckeye Trail in Ohio, but that's ok.

The window is open, I am smiley inside and out. A an easy quality day for sure.

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Stripes 2

 
This is out of focus, but things like that happen in the middle of the night. It's the end of a stack of ad flyers waiting to be inserted in the newspapers. I like the way it looks.



Vegged out today.

	See Stripes
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