A New Friend: Ribbon Snake at the Wetlands

My husband ordered the part for my car around 9 p.m. on Monday night, and shockingly enough, it arrived via Fed Ex by about 10:30 the following morning (!!!!), before we had even left for our day's adventures. So one of our stops on this day was the mechanic's, again, to set an appointment for my car for next week. (He had said not to call until we had the part in hand.) He'll do the repair next Thursday afternoon, which is as quickly as he could get us in. I am seeing another visit to beautiful Bald Eagle Creek and the marsh at Soaring Eagle in my future. (She said, quite happily.)

We headed to Bald Eagle State Park for a swim, and the beach was deserted. Maybe a half-dozen people were there when we arrived, about a dozen total by the end of it. It was low-key. The cloud show was amazing, and ominous, and eventually, we did get some sprinkles of rain, but it was after our swim, and we simply moved into one of the pavilions, under roof.

On the way home, we picked up two hoagies at Fisher's Market in Milesburg, and we stopped to split one of them at the Dreibelbis Birding Area, also known as the Miles Hollow or Julian Wetland. After our snack, which we ate sitting in one of the duck blinds - the one by the parking lot - we did a quick walk around. There were several monarchs and hummingbirds enjoying the purple blooms, which were New York ironweed and loosestrife.

Here is a photo of the new friend we made at the wetland. I initially thought it was a garter snake but as it turns out, it is a ribbon snake, Thamnophis saurita. It was maybe a foot and a half long, tops, and wrapped around a fallen tree branch, so we could see it quite clearly. What an adorable little nope rope. :-) Well met, little friend!

I wanted a soundtrack song with the word ribbon in it, so here is Gordon Lightfoot, with Ribbon of Darkness.