After my brief encounter with the wolves on Friday, I picked up a refuge vehicle and went back to my regularly scheduled activities. It was my day for restocking all the pamphlet boxes on the refuge entrance roads. To add a little excitement to this chore, I would also be adding hunting permit pamphlets. Hunting season on the refuge began Sept. 1.
As I reach each entrance road, I always take a drive down each one to check to see that everything is in good condition, and just provide an official presence once a week. Of course, I’m also hoping to see whatever wildlife is along the way.
As I rode with Ashlyn to the wolf pens that morning, she mentioned that she had seen an awful lot of snakes on the road in the mornings. I told her that I hadn’t ever seen a snake on this refuge this year or during my time here five years ago. (Warning: snake pictures ahead)
This phenomena has happened to me before. If there’s a certain species I want to see, I spend a lot of time looking and looking for it to no avail. Then once I find one, it seems to appear again almost every time I turn around. There must be a name for this phenomena.
I’ve seen rattlesnakes and cottonmouths on various refuges, but I’ve never seen a copperhead snake. So you know what suddenly appeared on the side of one of the back roads Friday afternoon.
A great big copperhead! I kept my distance and used my telephoto lens, but I was excited to see this venomous snake. It is one of the three pit vipers found on the refuge.
Wouldn’t you know it, I came across a second one on my drive back from working the Gateway VC late this afternoon. I suppose now, since I’ve finally seen one, they will appear every time I drive down one of these roads.
Two swallow-tailed butterflies were also on the road…
and before I knew it, a dozen or so more had joined that pair. There must have been something in the soil along the road that these guys needed for so many of them to stop at the same place.
My next surprise while monitoring the back roads was to come upon a great blue heron just walking down the road. I thought that was a little unusual.
The last two days were spent working at both VCs, and nothing very exciting happened there. I’ve got three days off now, so I’ll have to find an adventure or two to go on.
THE END!!
Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later, Judy
