Nature Friday – Warm Winter Visitor

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here. We’ve had some crazy weather this winter. Our snow total so far this year is way below normal, and we broke a record for the warmest winter on record. This past Tuesday we reached a record high temperature of 73°F (about 23°C). When Charlie walked out to retrieve a delivery from our front porch on Tuesday he was startled to see something laying on top of one of the shrubs. He ran back into the house to grab a camera and carefully fired off some shots while creeping closer and closer.

Just hanging out here in the chamaecyparis

A friendly garter snake (quite harmless) had climbed the chamaecyparis to sun himself! We’ve never seen our snakes out so early, but thanks to global warming there he was.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the snakes perched on top of an evergreen shrub. A few times while I’ve been mowing the lawn I will drive by some bird’s nest spruce we have at the edge of the grass and be startled to see one on the top. Once it almost jumped onto the tractor with me because it was startled too! In case you are wondering I did scream, but with the tractor noise nobody heard me. 

Here is a look at one Charlie found on another type of spruce shrub we have. Charlie seems to have a knack for finding them and photographing them.

Just hanging around in this spruce.

Here is a better view of his beautiful markings.

We love seeing our garter snakes and are lucky that they are quite harmless unless you are a toad, frog, slug, or worm. I do admit that sometimes when I’m walking along and one slithers near my feet that I do jump and get startled a bit, but they are beautiful to look at.

We are joining the LLB Gang for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

Read Full Post »

Nature Friday – Some Slithering Friends

Hi everyone! It’s Millie here. Today I want to introduce you to some of our slithering friends around our yard.

My best imitation of a snake

It’s been too hot to spend much time outside lately but we enjoy watching our garter snake friends when we can. I like to try to sniff them but mom always calls me off before they can strike at my nose. Don’t worry they are basically harmless and probably wouldn’t even connect if they tried to strike me.

A couple of different colored garter snakes.

We’re lucky to live in an area where there are no poisonous snakes.

This snake has beautiful markings

Our snakes spend the night under the upper (raised) portion of our patio. In the morning they make there way out. Sometimes we can see them just sticking their heads out of a crack under the steps.

This snake always comes out near the down spout.

The same snake that you see above always comes out near the down spout and makes its way across the lower patio to some vegetation to hang out for the day. Here is a video that shows the snake making its way.

If you can’t see the video you can go here to view it.

Always watch your step going in our out of the garage.

Here is a wide view of the snake’s path.

(Click on the image to make it bigger)

Occasionally the snake will hang out under the bench in the above picture.

All curled up under the bench

Maybe I should save this picture for Selfie Sunday.

These snakes do a great job of keeping small pests away from the house. They like to eat slugs which is great for the hosta on the patio. I hope you enjoyed seeing some of our snakes today.

Join the Nature Friday Blog Hop

We are joining the LLB Gang for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

Read Full Post »

Slithering Selfie Sunday

Hi everyone. It’s me Thami. Oh yeah you don’t really know who I am so let me show you.

Thami our Eastern Garter Snake

Just so you all know we garter snakes are quite harmless unless you are a toad, frog, slug, or worm.

I’m quite long aren’t I
(about 2 1/2 feet or 76 cm)

Many mornings I can be found sunning myself along the bottom step of the patio.

I like to hide in the patio step.

I’ve met Millie and Walter a few times but if I see them I like to hide. Those two can be quite curious but have very good manners and leave me alone if their pawrents tell them to. There is another garter snake that hangs out around here too but I’m the one that is seen the most. I hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know me a little.

We’re joining The Cat on My Head for their Selfie Sunday blog hop. We would like to congratulate them on their Seventh Blogoversary that they are celebrating today! They are also hosting a comment – a – thon and will be donating $1 for every comment they receive.

You should check out the hop to see some of the other selfies.

Read Full Post »

Creatures in the Garden

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here to show you some of the recent visitors we have had to our yard. These visitors are of the amphibian and reptilian type. I will warn you now that I am leaving, what many of you feel is, the creepiest for last. Now don’t let that stop you from scrolling to the bottom to leave a nice comment though.

You may remember a while ago when I posted about my surprise visitor on a Saturday evening. I was able to show you the under side of a Gray Tree Frog that had jumped on the window to munch on the bugs attracted to the light. We usually don’t see them much during the day so we were surprised recently when we found one trying to hide on the house.

Can you see him there in the upper right of the picture? Usually one or more spend the night sitting on the light of our patio door. I think this guy was making his way to someplace to hang out during the day and got sleepy.

Here is a nice close up of him. He fits nicely between the slats in the siding and is well camouflaged.

Next up is something we have never see around our property before and we have lived here 23 years.

Charlie happened to be walking up the driveway from collecting the mail when he spotted this Common Snapping Turtle in the lawn. Of course I ran out with the camera to snap some snapping turtle pictures.

Here is a close up of the head area. The turtle appears to be sleeping and even when I tapped on the shell it barely moved. Look at the claws on that thing too. It was headed in the direction of our creek and slowly made its way there.

Last up is one that some of you might want to scroll quickly past. We don’t often see the garter snakes that hang around our yard, but have occasionally found skins they shed. The other day I was photographing the flowers around the yard when I noticed some movement. Upon closer inspection I found this little guy hiding under the flowers.

We are lucky around here that we don’t have any deadly snakes and when I can see them like this I don’t mind them much. I have been known to scream a couple of times when I was walking along and one slithered right in front of me. As a matter of fact I swear I levitated a bit while he moved away.

He is a little more camouflaged here among the fallen stewartia tree flowers as he tries to hide from me. I left him alone after this since I didn’t want the pups to come investigate what I was looking at.

I hope you enjoyed this look at some of the non-furry visitors to our yard.

Read Full Post »