Yesterday I saw four northern water snakes, at separate locations, while I was walking around Cutler Pond on my lunch hour. Four is my personal best for one day! I was pleased that I saw them because I was looking for them; it wasn’t a case of their moving and my catching the motion out of the corner of my eye, or of their rustling the leaves and my hearing it. To some extent I’ve become tuned in to spotting them. Of course, I have no idea how many others I’m walking right past. This was the first time I’ve seen them this year, I think, though I have seen garter snakes there this year.
The first one I saw was smaller than the others, with better defined color stripes. It was the only one I took a picture of:
The others were more curled up, resting. Well, one stopped resting and slithered off when it noticed me looking at it more closely than it liked.