It was March 11, 2021 and it was a lovely day! Around 68F/20C. I’m sitting outside on the balcony outside the bedroom. For some reason we never used this balcony, but I’m finding that I enjoy sitting there. The sun’s going down and I’m having a beer. Harley’s arch enemies the deer are back. He’s been having a great time barking at them, but now he’s taking a break. The deck is on top of the sun room so I’m fairly high up. It feels like I’m in a safari camp in Africa overlooking a water hole where the wildlife come by to drink. In a way I am. There’s a pond directly across the meadow and the deer do indeed go there to drink. I’ve been hearing a lot of coyotes lately. Maybe I’ll hear some tonight. It’s pretty much dark now so I don’t expect to see anything.

And yes there are two of them. When the sun’s out they come out to bask. I’m not sure what they are. Black rat snakes, common racers, and garter snakes all look very similar to me. I do know that they’re not timber rattlesnakes, massasaugas or copperheads, which are the only venomous snakes in NY State and are the only snakes that would worry me.

They don’t bother me and they keep the rodent population down. I developed a new appreciation for snakes when I draped a python around my neck in Thailand and found that it wasn’t cold and slimy the way I thought it would be.

Taken with an Olympus OM-D E-M10 and Lumix G Vario 45-150mm f4-5.6