Pictures from opposite ends of New Jersey today 
. While I was up photographing abandoned farms in the Water Gap region my friend Jack was out with his dog in the area of Lower Forge when he spotted this guy:
At first he thought it was a rattler, since it "rattled" its tail against the ground when they approached.
Later he looked it up online and realized it was a King snake. Meanwhile I was up in the Water Gap region. Among many other stops I revisited one old farm I had photographed previously, because I knew I had missed one or two rooms. On this trip I found the door up to the attic, which was hidden around a corner in one of the bedrooms on the top floor. When I opened the door there were dead bats on the steps, and a rustling and squeaking from above that only increased as I ascended.
If you look carefull at that image you'll see one bat clinging to the chimney by his wing claws. The formless shape on the side of the chimney to the right is a group of five or six additional. Likewise there were many more clinging to the rafters. The light was incredibly bad.
Very hard to make out in this shot, but that is a six-inch high mound of bat guano, and it was one of the smaller mounds. I don't know how long this property has been abandoned, but it has been at least 30 years.
. While I was up photographing abandoned farms in the Water Gap region my friend Jack was out with his dog in the area of Lower Forge when he spotted this guy:
At first he thought it was a rattler, since it "rattled" its tail against the ground when they approached.
Later he looked it up online and realized it was a King snake. Meanwhile I was up in the Water Gap region. Among many other stops I revisited one old farm I had photographed previously, because I knew I had missed one or two rooms. On this trip I found the door up to the attic, which was hidden around a corner in one of the bedrooms on the top floor. When I opened the door there were dead bats on the steps, and a rustling and squeaking from above that only increased as I ascended.
If you look carefull at that image you'll see one bat clinging to the chimney by his wing claws. The formless shape on the side of the chimney to the right is a group of five or six additional. Likewise there were many more clinging to the rafters. The light was incredibly bad.
Very hard to make out in this shot, but that is a six-inch high mound of bat guano, and it was one of the smaller mounds. I don't know how long this property has been abandoned, but it has been at least 30 years.
