What is your first reaction when you see a snake? If you are like many people, you turn and run away as fast as you can. My reaction is generally the opposite one—I move closer to the snake, either physically or with a zoom lens, in order to get a more detailed look at it. Most of the snakes in our area are non-poisonous, but I still remain very cautious, because some of them will strike and/or bite. On Monday I spotted a large black snake in the vegetation at Occoquan Regional Park. As I started to get a little closer, it began to vibrate its entire body and the dried leaves helped to create ..read more

As I was hiking last Thursday in Prince William Forest Park, I spotted a cool-looking mushroom on a moss-covered fallen tree. I crouched low to the ground so that I could capture an eye-level shot of the mushroom. While I was carefully composing a few shots in the camera’s viewfinder, my eyes detected some movement in the corner of the frame and I was a bit shocked to see the head of a Five-lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus), one of the few lizard species in Virginia. Skinks are generally very skittish, so I froze in place and slowly changed the focus point from the mushroom (first photo) to t ..read more

When the weather is sunny, turtles at local ponds often bask in the sun in large groups. Sometimes the turtles are packed in so tightly that it looks like a mall parking lot at Christmas time. The turtles seem to have no concept of “personal space and often are leaning against each other. I spotted a few turtles on Wednesday at Prince William Forest Park and was struck by the fact that all seemed to have chosen solitude over solidarity—they were perched by themselves. The first one, a small Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) was perched on a small log in the shallow part of a marshy area. I real ..read more

Can turtles smile? It is probably physiologically impossible for a turtle to smile, but this Eastern Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta picta) seemed to be doing its best as it posed for me Monday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Some of our nights are still dipping below the freezing level, but the days seem to be getting progressively warmer. Most of the turtles are probably still spending the majority of their time in the mud at the bottom of the ponds, but a few adventurous ones have started to come to the surface to bask in the warmth of the sun on sunny days. © Michael Q. Powell ..read more

Last Friday at Huntley Meadows Park a host of turtles emerged from their winter sleep to bask in the unseasonably warm sun, including this beautiful Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata). Unlike most of the turtles where I live that prefer larger, more open bodies of water, Spotted Turtles are found most often in the shallow water of marshy areas and are considered to be semi-aquatic. As I recall, turtles do not hibernate, but instead enter a period of brumation in which they bury themselves in the mud and slow down their metabolisms. According to the Pee Dee Wildlife Control website, “Brumation is ..read more

The days are growing cooler, but when the sun is shining brightly, turtles will still come up from the bottom of the ponds to bask, like this Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) that I spotted last Friday on a log at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. One of its comrades was lounging nearby with just its head stuck out of the mucky surface of the water. Neither of these two images is incredible, but I really like the small details that I was able to capture, like the claws on the turtle’s feet in first photo and the bubbles on the water in the second shot. I think that life is often like that ..read more

While I was composing a shot of this turtle at a small pond in Kingstowne, a suburban area only a mile or so from where I live, another turtle popped its head out of the water to photobomb its friend. I am pretty sure that the basking turtle is a Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans), though I must admit that turtles are definitely not my speciality when it comes to identifying species. We are in a transitional time of the year—we have already had some days with frost, but some other days have been warm and sunny. Today, for example, we may be flirting with record high temperatures up t ..read more

I love the way these turtles were lined up on an upward-slanting log as they basked in the autumn sunlight last Tuesday at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge. One smaller turtle looked like it was trying to merge into the traffic on the log, but the other turtles, like drivers in the Washington D.C. area where I live, were not letting him in. The reflections in the water were a nice bonus and few floating leaves add little pops of autumn color. © Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved ..read more

As I prepared to take a step closer to a pond last Friday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, I suddenly saw that there was a large snake in the vegetation right where my foot was about to land. My mind quickly processed the information and came to the conclusion that it was probably “only” a Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon), a non-poisonous snake that is quite common where I live. Not wanting to disturb the snake, I backed off a little and captured this shot of the snake that was pretty well hidden in the vegetation. My mission completed, I continued on down the trail and the snak ..read more

The weather is cooling off, but whenever there is the slightest amount of sunshine, I can count on seeing turtles basking in the warmth of the sun. This past Wednesday, I spotted these three turtles on a partially submerged tree branch in the small pond at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge. I am pretty sure that the turtle on the right is a Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) and the other two may be Yellow-bellied Sliders (Trachemys scripta scripta). I am always a fan of reflections and I love the way that we can see reflections of the turtles on the rippled surface of the water. I ..read more