I went hiking with my son today in the old pits in Chatsworth. Now FPP. The weather was perfect today. We've visited this general area several times before because the dirt mountains (that are there now) are Heaven for a 3 year old with infinite energy.
This mud hole was teaming with frogs.
After scaling about 30 dirt mounds we headed into the woods but not before we came across this along the side of one of the highest mounds.
Hmmm, what could it be?
That is right. A beautiful hognose snake. The first (amazingly) I've seen in the pines. I was pretty excited. I approached and he went into that great display of false aggression they are known for. Flattened head, inflated body and hisssssssss. It has probably been 25 years since I have seen that. I tried to get him to play dead by initiating a false strike but I didn't want my son to get too comfortable with the idea of approaching snakes. So despite my urging, I didn't catch him. Beautiful animal though.
I got up close for a great front head shot but my already failing batteries gave out then.
In the woods, Jack went to town on a mess of low bush blueberries, then we rushed back because he heard the Jersey Devil (or perhaps it was Dad throwing stones in the brush). Either way it made for a fun race back to the car. Oh, yeah, saw some big coyote tracks also.
Cheers,
Jeff
This mud hole was teaming with frogs.
After scaling about 30 dirt mounds we headed into the woods but not before we came across this along the side of one of the highest mounds.
Hmmm, what could it be?
That is right. A beautiful hognose snake. The first (amazingly) I've seen in the pines. I was pretty excited. I approached and he went into that great display of false aggression they are known for. Flattened head, inflated body and hisssssssss. It has probably been 25 years since I have seen that. I tried to get him to play dead by initiating a false strike but I didn't want my son to get too comfortable with the idea of approaching snakes. So despite my urging, I didn't catch him. Beautiful animal though.
I got up close for a great front head shot but my already failing batteries gave out then.
In the woods, Jack went to town on a mess of low bush blueberries, then we rushed back because he heard the Jersey Devil (or perhaps it was Dad throwing stones in the brush). Either way it made for a fun race back to the car. Oh, yeah, saw some big coyote tracks also.
Cheers,
Jeff
