Cool Snakes

Saturday the family and I went to see the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge near Lake Erie. That was a really neat park. Not too far from home, either.

We saw 4 snakes that day. Just plain Ohio water snakes, but still pretty cool. The first two were sunning themselves on branches above the water, and dropped in as we got close. The third must have been enjoying the sun too much, because he wouldn't drop in no matter how close we got. Here he is:

[IMG]http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc411/Vix_Sundown/D2B4C1D1-2B94-461A...

That one was about 2-1/2 feet long.

Later on, we saw one swimming really close to us. That sucker was booking it! He got too far away before I could get much of a shot:

[IMG]http://i1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc411/Vix_Sundown/B414C510-76A2-4AF7...

I've always liked snakes, though I have a healthy fear of them. As a kid growing up in Texas and Arkansas, I used to go look for snakes and kept some as pets. Along with turtles and lizards. I used to pick up whatever snake I could find, except for Copperheads and Water Mocassins, which I killed.

Once a wild Gray Rat snake tried to bite me and latch on; I just barely caught him behind the neck before he could. After my mom found out he had escaped from the terrarium in my room overnight - loose in our house - well, that was pretty much the end of my snake-keeping career. We never did find that snake...

Anyway, it was cool to see some Ohio snakes. They also had a ton of water birds up there. My son is a Birder, so that's pretty much the reason we went. He got to see some wild mute swans.

Layer, we went to the Lake Erie beach, and got to smell all the beachy smells. You know, the rotting fish carcasses lying on the shore? Mmmm.... Fish carcasses...