Macro Snake...

Isn't it always the way - whatever lens you strap on your camera, you immediately encounter something that would benefit from a different lens.  Take this for example.  This is a 5-6 foot Black Rat Snake.  And the lens on my camera?  A Nikon 105 mm macro lens.  Yep.  Big snake and a bug lens.

So what's a blipper to do?  Well, in this instance, once we had all ascertained that the snake was not being aggressive, I got down on the ground at eye level and let it approach to within about 2 feet of the camera (which I was holding to my face, natch).  I cropped this shot only very slightly.  And, from someone who used to be terrified of snakes, I am VERY proud of this!  And my mom, when she sees this, is going to be grinning ear-to-ear, and saying "that's my daughter!"  (Mom's never met a snake she's been afraid of).

It was a great day out with my naturalist group - I returned with 300 photos which have been whittled down to about 60.  I've posted my nine favorites on Flickr, starting here with a pair of skinks.  Fair warning, the second shot is of a fearsome looking spider (wolf, I think) carrying her giant egg sack - it's actually kind of cool, but not if you hate spiders.  Other shots are some odes, a cool beetle, another shot of the snake and a very cute gray tree frog.

While I was gone, and while Hubs was meeting in one of the front rooms with his business partners, a bear got onto the deck and destroyed two feeders.  Damn bears.  

I haven't checked the chickadee nest yet to see if they've finally fledged - will do that later, after a much-needed shower.

Cheers, people.