NATURE CLICKS #435 - BROWN SNAKE

It has been 10 years and one month ago since a Brown Snake was in front of my lens. I have lamented numerous times about the fact that we hardly see any snakes anymore around here, probably due to snake fungal disease (SFD). This photo is a few days old, because I was out of town for business, but my excitement hasn’t really settled yet. This is not a photo for winning an award, but for me it is a very important documentary shot.

While filling a hummingbird feeder in the front yard I discovered this snake between our Brown-eyed Susan sunflowers. Brown Snakes are primarily woodland snakes and eat earthworms, insect larvae, and slugs. They are docile and harmless.

The problem with making this photo was finding a “window” between all the flowers where nothing obstructed at least the head of the snake. This looks easy but a little wind made things moving around the snake and I have several shots where this was just not the case.

NATURE CLICKS #380 - GREAT CRESTED FLYCATCHER

Great Crested Flycatcher, Mississippi River, Green Island Wetlands, Iowa

Photographically seen it is a pitiful picture with lots of distractions, but my interest in birds makes me showing it anyway. So, lets treat it as a documentary shot…😉.

It was in 2012 when I had seen the last time a Great Crested Flycatcher. Yesterday, on our kayak paddling tour in the Green Island Wetlands, we saw this bird again and there were even a couple of juveniles. Unfortunately I was not able to move in the right position with the boat to get them in the frame. This adult flycatcher was high up in a tree and one of the reasons I used the word “pitiful” for this image is the fact that I had to crop it to death to make it halfway work, at least here in the blog. The photo connoisseurs among you may wrinkle their nose but I hope some birders and nature lovers can get a kick out of it…