Reptiles | Mike Powell

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Skink in October

Posted in Autumn, Nature, Photography, Reptiles, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Common Five-Lined Skink, Huntley Meadows Park, juvenile skink, Plestiodon fasciatus, Tamron 150-600mm on October 20, 2020| 11 Comments »

We do not have many lizards where I live, so it is always fun to spot one. The lizard that I see most often is the appropriately named Common Five-lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus). The adults are cool-looking, but they are no match in appearance for the juveniles that sport a brilliantly blue tail.

I spotted this handsome little skink last week while exploring Huntley Meadows Park. The skink was spread out wide on the trunk of a tree in an apparent attempt to warm up in the sunlight. I snapped off a few quick shots with my long telephoto zoom lens before I stealthily moved forward to improve my shooting position. However, as is usually the case, the skink was skittish and disappeared from sight as soon as it detected my presence.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Preparing to shed

Posted in Autumn, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Reptiles, snake, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Ratsnake, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Pantherophis alleghaniensis, shedding, Tamron 180mm, Woodbridge VA on September 30, 2020| 20 Comments »

Humans shed skin cells all of the time—according to one source, in one year, each of us sheds more than 8 pounds (3.6 kg) of dead skin. Snakes have an entirely different shedding process. Several times a year they grow a complete new layer of skin underneath the old layer. During shedding, snakes secrete a fluid to help separate the old skin from the new, and this fluid runs under their specialized eye caps, resulting in the opaque or blue quality of the eye.

Last Friday I encountered one of these blue-eyed snakes while exploring Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Snakes are vulnerable during this stage when their vision is impaired and I was a little surprised to see this snake was in a fairly open area. I think this may be an Eastern Ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis), but did not examine the snake at length for fear of disturbing it.

Moving as stealthily as I could, I leaned in with my macro lens to capture this image. If you look carefully into the eye (or double-click on the image to enlarge it) you will see that I managed to capture a “selfie” reflection.

As an interesting coincidence, my most viewed posting of 2020 has been a May 2016 posting that also featured a snake with a blue eye. That posting, entitled Blue-eyed garter snake, has had 597 views so far this year. If you are not totally creeped out by today’s photo, you might want to check out the 2016 posting, which has some full body shots as well as a close-up shot of the snake’s head.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Look down

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, snake, Summer, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Fairfax County Virginia, Nerodia sipedon, Northern Water Snake, Northern Watersnake, Tamron 180mm on June 14, 2020| 7 Comments »

When you are walking near the edge of the water, it is good to look down from time to time. Sharp-eyed Walter Sanford, a fellow dragonfly fanatic, spotted this Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon) as we were searching for dragonflies in Fairfax County, Virginia last Monday. This is a non-poisonous snake, but I have read that it will bite and the wound may bleed a lot, because its saliva contains a mild anticoagulant.

Three years ago I had an encounter with a similar snake and watched it capture and devour a catfish. If you missed that posting, click on this link and check out “Snake captures catfish“—if you are like me, you will be fascinated and slightly horrified by the encounter and may avoid wading in the water at the edge of rivers for a time.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Zen turtle

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, turtle, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge, red-eared slider, red-eared slider turtle, Tamron 180mm, Trachemys scripta elegans) on June 13, 2020| 23 Comments »

Most of the time Red-eared Slider turtles (Trachemys scripta elegans) slide into the water as soon as they detect my presence. Yesterday, however, this turtle seemed to be in such a deep meditative state that it remained in place when I approached it at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge. The turtle was even impassive to repeated buzzings by several Eastern Amberwing dragonflies, some of which flew within inches of its face.

I was hoping to get some a shot of a dragonfly landing on the turtle’s shell, but was content to capture this image with both the turtle and a passing dragonfly.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Skink environment

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, Summer, wildlife, tagged Broad-headed Skink, Canon 50D, Lorton VA, Occoquan Regional Park, Plestiodon laticeps, skink, Tamron 180mm on June 10, 2020| 15 Comments »

I usually try to fill the frame as much as possible when I photograph wildlife, but it is equally cool sometimes to take a wider shot that shows the subject’s environment. That was the case with this photo of a Broad-headed Skink (Plestiodon laticeps) that I took last Friday at Occoquan Regional Park. As many of you know, during this time of the year I shoot most often with a macro lens that does not zoom. When I spotted this skink from a distance, I took this shot, suspecting that the skink would scamper away if I got any closer. As soon as I took one more step, the skink disappeared under the tree.

I love the contrast between the bright orange head of the skink and the vibrant green moss on the trunk of the fallen tree. This is probably a male skink, given that the head in males becomes bright orange, as in the photo, during the mating season (spring) but fades and reduces in size in other times of the year.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Can you find the eye of the snake?

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, snake, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Fairfax County Virginia, Nerodia sipedon, Northern Water Snake, Northern Watersnake, Tamron 180mm, Walter Sanford on May 29, 2020| 27 Comments »

From a distance I did not notice the large snake coiled up in the grass near the bank of the river—I spotted it only when I was a footstep or two away from stepping on it. My first thought was that it was probably a non-poisonous Northern Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon). After my encounter with an Eastern Copperhead snake last year, though, I have been a little more anxious to get a good look at any snake that I see, especially its head, in order to assess my relative risk—the copperhead has a large angular head and its eyes have a vertical pupil.

So my eyes began to trace the coils of the snake, trying to find its head. This image gives you a pretty good idea of the view that I had as I bent over slightly to look at the snake. In the photo, it is easy to be distracted by the beautiful colors and pattern of its scales and by the sinuous curves of its body. I was a bit relieved when my eyes finally found the round pupils of the eye of this snake which, believe it or not, is visible in this image. Can you find it?

In case you are curious, I took this photo this past Tuesday when I was exploring in the wilds of Fairfax County, Virginia, hunting for dragonflies with my friend and fellow dragonfly enthusiast Walter Sanford. Although our primary target was dragonflies, my eyes were always scanning surrounding areas for other interesting creatures. (If you still have not found the snake’s eye in the image, here is a clue—look near the extreme left in the photo towards the middle.)

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Muddy turtles in May

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, spring, turtle, Winter, tagged Canon 50D, Chrysemys picta, Eastern Painted Turtle, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, painted turtle, Tamron 150-600mm, Tamron 180mm, Woodbridge VA on May 27, 2020| 13 Comments »

Last week I featured an actual mud turtle, but today’s muddy turtles are actually Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta) that appear to have been painted with a coating of mud. The last few months we have had a lot of unusually cool weather, and I think the turtles have been spending a lot of time in the mud at the bottom of the ponds. Last week the weather improve and there were turtles in all kinds of places at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge trying to absorb the warmth of the sun.

The pose of the first two turtles brings to mind a well-known scene from the movie Titanic in which Jack and Rose (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) were standing at the railing at the prow of the ship. I must confess that I spent 4+ hours watching the movie on television last Sunday night, which may be why the scene is so fresh in my mind. Yeah, I’m a bit of a romantic.

I encountered the second Painted Turtle as it was slowly making its way across a trail at the wildlife refuge. In addition to noting the large amount of fresh mud still on its shell, I was delighted by the way the two little leaf fragments on its shell matched the yellow markings on its neck.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Mud Turtle in May

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, spring, turtle, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Mud Turtle, Kinosternon subrubrum, Kinosternon subrubrum subrubrum, mud turtle, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Southeastern Mud Turtle, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on May 21, 2020| 10 Comments »

No matter how many times that I see an Eastern Mud Turtle (Kinosternon subrubrum), I am always shocked by the disproportionately large size of its head. When I spotted this one on Tuesday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, I remember wondering if it was physically possible for the turtle to withdraw its head into its shell. The turtle was standing in the middle of a wide trail, apparently in the process of crossing the trail. Although the mud turtle seemed to be fully aware of my presence, it appeared to be totally unfazed and merely gave me a sidewards glance as it waited for me to pass.

Given the circumstances in which we now live, I think we all could use some of the patience and imperturbability of this little creature.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Missing a tail

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, spring, wildlife, tagged Broad-headed Skink, Canon 50D, Plestiodon laticeps, Prince William County VA, skink, Tamron 180mm on May 18, 2020| 15 Comments »

When I posted a photograph last week of a skink with a bright blue tail, I noted that a skink can shed its tail if a predator grabs onto it. I never suspected that two days later I would encounter a skink with a missing tail. When I first spotted it, I was so drawn to the detailed scallop pattern on its body that I did not even notice its really short tail. (Click on the image to get a closer view of that wonderful texture.) The coloration suggests to me that this is a Broad-headed Skink (Plestiodon laticeps), not the more common Five-lined Skink that I featured last week.

I was also drawn to the orange coloration of the head. According to the Virginia Herpetological website, the head in male Broad-headed Skinks becomes bright orange and enlarged in the temporal region during the spring mating season. Perhaps the skink lost its tail during a fight with a rival—the website cited above notes that adult males are particularly aggressive to other males during the mating season.

In case you need a reminder about how long a skink’s tail should be, check out the posting from last week Young skink in May. Some of you may have read my bad joke about skinks in the comment section of that posting, but it seems so appropriate that I can’t help but repeat it here. “Do you know what skinks do when they lose their tails? They go to a retail store.” Sorry. 🙂

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Young skink in May

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Common Five-Lined Skink, Plestiodon fasciatus, Prince William County VA, skink, Tamron 180mm on May 11, 2020| 17 Comments »

I really love the look of young Common Five-lined Skinks (Plestiodon fasciatus), when their tails are bright blue, like this one that I spotted last Thursday while exploring in Prince William County. The blue color gradually fades as the skinks mature and as a result it becomes a bit harder to spot the adults in the wild.

We do not have very many lizards where I live, so I am always happy to see one of these skinks. They are generally about 5 to 8.5 inches in length (13 to 21 cm), including their tails, and tend to be very skittish. I have read that a skink can shed its tail if a predator grabs onto it and then regenerate somewhat imperfectly the lost portion of the tail, but I have never knowingly seen a skink with a regrown tail.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Eastern Ratsnake

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Ratsnake, Pantherophis alleghaniensis, Prince William County VA, Tamron 180mm on April 14, 2020| 7 Comments »

So many of the creatures that I encounter blend in so well with their environments, that I detect them only when they move. That was the case with this Eastern Ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) last week that I spotted while I was exploring in Prince William County, Virginia.

I was a bit startled when the leaves started to rustle almost directly beneath my feet and my eyes detected the form of a large black snake slowly slithering away from me. The snake apparently had been sunning itself before I inadvertently disturbed it.

After the snake had moved some distance up the side of a small hill covered with fallen leaves and vegetation, it paused and turned to the side, allowing me to capture the first shot below. As those of you who know me might suspect, I too had been making my way up the hill parallel to the snake, waiting for such an opportunity to arise to get a shot of the snake’s head, which explains why I was able to take the shot from relatively close range.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Colorful Painted Turtle

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, spring, turtle, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Chrysemys picta, Chrysemys picta picta, Eastern Painted Turtle, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, painted turtle, Painted Turtle Pond, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on March 16, 2020| 4 Comments »

On Friday I encountered this basking Eastern Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta picta) at the appropriately named Painted Turtle Pond at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Although painted turtles are common in the area in which I live, I am always happy to see their bright colors. In this case, the fallen flowers from a nearby tree added a nice accent to my little portrait of this colorful turtle.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Eastern Mud Turtle

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, spring, turtle, Winter, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Mud Turtle, Kinosternon subrubrum, Kinosternon subrubrum subrubrum, mud turtle, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Southeastern Mud Turtle, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on March 15, 2020| 7 Comments »

On Friday I spotted this small turtle as it was crossing one of the trails at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. It is not a species that I see very often, but I think it is an Eastern Mud Turtle (Kinosternon subrubrum) Appropriately enough its back half appears to be covered in mud.

I generally think of turtles as being slow-moving, but this one was scrambling so quickly across the trail that it was a challenge to keep in within the camera’s viewfinder after I had zoomed in all the way with my telephoto lens. In case you are curious, Eastern Mud Turtles are only about four inches in length (10 cm).

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Spotted Turtle in March

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, spring, turtle, wildlife, tagged aestivation, Canon 50D, Clemmys guttata, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge, Spotted Turtle, Tamron 180mm on March 13, 2020| 9 Comments »

As our weather continues to warm up, more and more creatures are reappearing, like this Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata) that I spotted yesterday at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge. As you can see from the photo, the turtle was on dry land, in a wooded area with pine trees, rather than in the water like most of the other turtles that I saw yesterday.

Spotted Turtles are relatively small, about 3.5 – 4.5 inches in length (9 – 11.5 cm), according to the Virginia Herpetological Society website. The website also notes that this species is seen primarily in the early spring, but seldom beyond the month of June. Spotted Turtles enter into a state of dormancy (technically it is “aestivation”) during the warmest months under vegetation and during the coldest months under mud. During those periods they are inactive and their metabolism rate is lower, but their physiological state can be rapidly reversed, and they can quickly return to a normal state.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Springtime snake

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, snake, spring, wildlife, tagged black racer, Canon 50D, Canon 70-300mm, Coluber constrictor constrictor, Eastern Ratsnake, Northern Black Racer, Northern Black Racer snake, Pantherophis alleghaniensis, Prince William Forest Park, rat snake, Triangle VA on March 6, 2020| 16 Comments »

Our recent warm weather has caused all kinds of creatures to reappear, like this Eastern Ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) that I spotted on Wednesday while hiking in Prince William Forest Park. I kept my distance and relied on a telephoto lens to zoom closer even though I knew that this snake was not poisonous. I am not sure how long the snake was, but as you can see in the second photo it looked to be quite long. According to the Virginia Herpetological Society website, the Eastern Ratsnake is the only snake in Virginia that can grow to be more than six feet (183 cm) in length.

UPDATE: A snake expert weighed in on my Facebook posting about this snake and noted that, “This is a Black Racer (Coluber constrictor constrictor). It’s harder to tell with the mud, but the dorsal scales are unkeeled, the skull shape too round, scale shape more rhombus-like, and eyes too big.” This just reinforces the notion that the more that I learn, the more I realize how little I know—that is why it is great to have experts around to help us identify what we see and photograph. The average size of a Northern Black Racer is “only” 36-60 inches (90-152 cm).

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Rough Green Snake in October

Posted in Autumn, Nature, Photography, Reptiles, snake, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge, Northern Rough Green Snake, Northern Rough Greensnake, Opheodrys aestivus, Tamron 180mm on October 26, 2019| 3 Comments »

A sharp-eyed fellow photographer spotted this Northern Rough Green Snake (Opheodrys aestivus) at eye level in a tree at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge this past Wednesday as we both were searching for dragonflies. The sun was shining brightly and I suspect the snake was basking in its warm on a relatively cool day. I managed to capture a few shots of this colorful snake before it silently slithered away.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Snapping Turtle at trail’s edge

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, turtle, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Chelydra serpentina, Eastern Snapping Turtle, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, snapping turtle, Tamron 180mm, Woodbridge VA on September 20, 2019| 12 Comments »

I spotted this large Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) in the grassy vegetation at the edge of one of the trails at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge on Monday. The turtle seemed to notice me as I bent down to take the shot, but made no attempt to move away (or to snap at me). Still. I decided to play it safe, kept a healthy distance from the turtle, and departed from the turtle without disturbing it from its comfortable resting spot.

In the past I have seen snapping turtles out of the water only in the spring, when they emerge from the muddy pond bottoms where they spend their winters, and when they are laying their eggs. I am not at all sure why this one decided to spend some time on dry land.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Long blue tail

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, wildlife on June 7, 2019| 2 Comments »

I love to see young Common Five-lined Skinks (Plestiodon fasciatus) with their long, bright blue tails, like this one that I spotted on a dead tree earlier this week in Prince William County, Virginia. There is something so whimsically incongruous about that striking color on the skink’s body that I can’t help but smile whenever I see one.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Eastern Copperhead

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, wildlife, tagged Agkistrodon contortrix, Canon 50D, Eastern Copperhead, Eastern Copperhead snake, Prince William County, Tamron 180mm on June 6, 2019| 9 Comments »

There are not very many species of venomous snakes in Virginia, but I managed to encounter one of them, an Eastern Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix), while exploring in Prince William County earlier this week will fellow wildlife enthusiast Walter Sanford. I had just climbed over the trunk of a fallen tree when I looked to the side and spotted the snake about three to four feet away from me (100 to 120 cm).

The first shot is a cropped image that shows the copperhead’s eerie eye with a vertical pupil—I was definitely not as close as it may appear. The second shot shows the view that I had when looking through my 180 mm macro lens. The snake, which is pretty large and well camouflaged, appeared to be fully alert and was facing the tree trunk that I had just crossed.

I have read a lot about copperheads since that encounter. One of the tips for avoiding them included checking the other side of logs before stepping over them—I am pretty sure I will heed that advice from now on.

UPDATE: Check out Walter Sanford’s blog posting that includes his impressions of our encounter with the copperhead and some additional photos.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Broad-headed Skink

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, spring, wildlife, tagged Broad-headed Skink, Canon SX50, Plestiodon laticeps, Prince William Forest Park, skink, Triangle VA on May 15, 2019| 6 Comments »

It was quite startling to see the bright orange color on the head of this Broad-headed Skink (Plestiodon laticeps) yesterday at Prince William Forest Park in Triangle, Virginia. We do not have many lizards in our area and they all tend to blend in much better with their surroundings than this one did.

According to information from the Virginia Herpetological Society, adult males of this species are uniformly brown most of the year. However, during mating season in the spring the head of the males becomes enlarged and turns bright orange. The color of their heads gradually fade and the head is reduced in size the rest of the year.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Ménage à trois or just friends?

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, spring, turtle, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Chrysemys picta picta, Eastern Painted Turtle, ménage à trois, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, red-eared slider, red-eared slider turtle, Tamron 150-600mm, Trachemys scripta elegans), Woodbridge VA on April 22, 2019| 7 Comments »

What is your first thought when you see these three turtles together? Are they just friends or more than friends? The turtles seem to be pretty comfortable sharing a confined space and there is plenty of space in our minds for varied interpretations on the nature of their relationship. According to the old saying, “two’s a couple and three’s a crowd”—is that always true?

Whatever the case, the turtles at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge have been definitely been enjoying our recent sunny days. My turtle identification skills are not very good, but I think these all may be Eastern Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta picta), though there is a chance that they might be Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans).

I love images like this one that allow viewers to use their creativity to interpret what they see and to generate in their minds their own mini-narrative of what is going on. Ménage à trois or just friends—you make the call.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Springtime swimming snake

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, snake, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon SX50, creek, Nerodia sipedon, Northern Virginia, Northern Water Snake, Northern Watersnake on April 15, 2019| 8 Comments »

One of the hazards of exploring creeks and streams at this time of the year is that snakes may be sunning themselves at water’s edge. Last week I was startled when I suddenly realized that there was a snake right in front of me, precisely in the direction in which I had been moving.

I managed to get a shot of the sunning snake, which I believe to be a Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon), just before it set off swimming down the creek. Although the first shot may make it look like I was really close to the snake, I was actually a good distance away—generally I prefer to use long telephoto lenses with snakes.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Snapping Turtle Crossing

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, spring, turtle, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, chelydra sepentina, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, snapping turtle, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on March 23, 2019| 5 Comments »

Why did the Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) cross the road? It sounds like the opening line of a joke, but I asked myself that question yesterday when I spotted a snapping turtle lumbering its way across one of the trails at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The turtle’s back was covered with mud, suggesting it had only recently emerged from its winter sleep. In the past I have sometimes seen snapping turtles out of the water when they were getting ready to lay eggs, though it seems a little early for that to be taking place.

I have always thought that snapping turtle look like dinosaurs. What do you think?

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Snake in February

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, wildlife, Winter, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Ratsnake, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Pantherophis alleghaniensis, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on February 26, 2019| 6 Comments »

Yesterday was sunny, but not particularly warm—about 48 degrees F (9 degrees C)—so I was shocked when I encountered a snake. My eyes were pointed upwards as I scanned the trees for birds, but a slight movement just in front of my feet caught my attention and when I looked downward, I saw the sinuous curves of a snake (as shown in the second image below).

The snake, which I think may be an Eastern Ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis), moved to the side of the path and into the brush. It stopped moving long enough, however, for me to capture the close-up image image below. I know that some folks will find the image to be creepy or even frightening, but I like the way that it shows some of the wonderful details of the snake’s markings and its body.

Although it may look like I was really close to the snake, I was actually a good distance away and was shooting with a long telephoto lens.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Turtles in December

Posted in Autumn, Nature, Photography, Reptiles, turtle, tagged Canon 50D, Chrysemys picta picta, Eastern Painted Turtle, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, red-eared slider, red-eared slider turtle, Tamron 150-600mm, Trachemys scripta elegans), turtle, Woodbridge VA on December 8, 2018| 3 Comments »

The temperature today feels so frigid—right about the freezing level—that it is hard to remember that only this past Monday it was sunny and 60 degrees (16 degrees C). While I was enjoying the unseasonably warm weather and exploring Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, I photographed these sunning turtles, a relatively rare sight in December.

I did not get a good enough view of the turtles to be able to identify them with any confidence, but I think they may be Eastern Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta picta) or possibly Red-eared Sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans).

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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I’m not your steppin’ stone

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Chrysemys picta picta, Eastern Painted Turtle, I'm not your steppin' stone, Monkees, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, painted turtle, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on October 18, 2018| 12 Comments »

When I spotted this turtle from a distance earlier this week at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, it was so elevated that I thought it was standing on a log or a rock. It was only when I zoomed in on this Eastern Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta picta) that I realized that it was standing on the back of another turtle. Yikes!

You have to be pretty old—probably about my age—if you remember the song whose name I used as the title for this blog posting. No, it was not sung by The Turtles.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Preying snake

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Ben Brenman Park, Canon 50D, Nerodia sipedon, Northern Water Snake, Tamron 180mm on September 30, 2018| 10 Comments »

Semi-submerged in the duckweed in the shallow water, this snake patiently awaited an unseen prey yesterday at the pond at Ben Brenman Park, a small suburban park not far from where I live in Alexandria, Virginia. I did not get a really good look at the snake, which dove into the water shortly after I took this shot, but I think it might be a Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon).

In many ways I was more interested in the sinuous curves of the snake’s body than in the identification of the snake’s species. There is an abstract beauty in the colors and the shapes in this image that appeals to me, though I know that some of my viewers are so creeped out by the main subject that they will find it hard to see any beauty whatsoever in the image.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Snake versus fish

Posted in Fish, Nature, Photography, Reptiles, Summer, wildlife, tagged Canon SX50, Great Falls VA, Nerodia sipedon, Northern Water Snake, Northern Watersnake, Riverbend Park, snake versus fish on July 22, 2018| 11 Comments »

Anyone who has ever gone fishing has a story of “the one that got away.” This Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon) wanted to make sure that it did not have such a story to tell and dragged its prey onto dry land. Then the snake faced the challenge of figuring out how to swallow the large fish. The snake twisted and turned and contorted its body and head as it gradually ingested the fish. When the fish was part way down its throat, the snake appeared to push up against a log for additional leverage.

I captured a sequence of shots that speak for themselves, so I will not bother to explain each of them. Like me, you will probably feel a kind of macabre mixture of horror and fascination as you view them.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Impressions in the rain

Posted in Birds, Flowers, Nature, Photography, Reptiles, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Box Turtle, hummingbird, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tachycineta bicolor, Tamron 180mm, Terrapene carolina, Tree Swallow, trumpet vine, Woodbridge VA on June 25, 2018| 8 Comments »

We have been having so much rain this month that I have taken to carrying an umbrella with me much of the time, including when I am going out with my camera. It’s a challenge to take photos in the rain, because of the juggling required to hold a camera steady while holding an umbrella and also because there are fewer subjects to photograph—most creatures have the common sense to seek shelter when it is raining.

Here are a few photos from a walk I took this past Friday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. They are a different style than most of the photos that I post on this blog, but I really like the way they turned out.

In the first image an Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina) had a different way for handling the rain than the umbrella I was carrying—it simply pulled its legs and head inside of its shell. In the second image a Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) decided to brave the rain to get a breath of fresh air while perched atop a nesting box. The final photo shows a hummingbird view of a trumpet vine flower, one of its favorites. Alas, no hummingbirds were flying in the rain.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Re-blog–Here’s The Catch: Predator and Prey

Posted in Amphibians, Arachnids, Birds, Dragonflies, Nature, Photography, Reptiles on June 18, 2018| 4 Comments »

Do you think about your photographic subjects one at a time? That’s the way that I tend to operate. One of my blogging friends, though, likes to organize photos of others around themes that transcend the boundaries of individual species. In this posting, Liz of Exploring Colour focused on the theme of Predators and Prey with photos that capture this reality of nature without becoming gruesome. Be sure to check out her other wonderful postings too that include her own photos as well of those of some other awesome photographers.

Exploring Colour

The reality of the natural world is that some creatures eat other creatures to survive. Nature photographers spend a lot of time outside and sometimes capture dramatic moments in the struggle for survival. Their photos and stories may shock us but we can learn so much from these encounters – animals seem capable of much more planning, strategy and applied knowledge than what most of us humans ever give them credit for.

** Click on any photo to view large-size version **

Note: Each photographer’s website/blog is listed at the bottom of this blog-post.

Mike Powell | Snake catches catfish | 20 July, 2017

Story plus 5 Photos showing the snake in various positions holding his catch, all the time in the water, until all of a sudden the snake somehow ingests the large fish and the last photo shows the snake with only the fish tail sticking out of…

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Swimming stream snake

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, snake, wildlife, tagged Nerodia sipedon, Northern Virginia, Northern Water Snake, Northern Watersnake, stream, swimming, swimming snake on June 16, 2018| 7 Comments »

As I was exploring the edge of a small stream in Northern Virginia yesterday, I suddenly noticed a snake slowly swimming upstream. Its head seemed quite a bit lighter than its patterned body and I initially was confused by it. When I examined the photos afterwards, it appears the snake, which I think is a Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon), was in the process of shedding its skin.

Northern Water Snakes are non-poisonous, but I never have a desire to get close to any snake that is in the water. From what I have read, I know that these snakes will bite you repeatedly if you try to pick them and their saliva contains an anti-coagulant that will make the wound bleed a lot.

At the time that the snake appeared, I was shooting with a 180mm macro lens, so any zooming that I was able to do was with my feet. At a certain point in time, the snake became aware of my presence and began to swim away more quickly. I was happy to be able to capture a shot as it was departing that shows more of the beautiful pattern on its body and some wonderful patterns in the water too.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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