Every dog does have its day, it seems…

The warm sun and blue skies were gone, but the temps were still mild, the clouds had no leaks, and the air was nearly still, so it was a fine morning for visiting Estabrook Park. My first treat for the day was getting this yellow-rumped warbler, our first warbler of the season, to hold still for the 125th of a second that my shutter was open.

I was happy to see that we still have some winter wrens around, and I counted three today, but this one seemed surprisingly oblivious to me taking pictures of it from the bridge over the ravine north of the beer garden.

Another recent returner are the hermit thrushes, and I counted three of them as well, all along the path through the woods from the pond down to the river. This one was checking to see if I was going to try taking its picture, and the answer was, “yes, yes I am.”

The female red-winged blackbirds are finally starting to arrive and checking to see which males have staked out suitable territories over the past few weeks.

And the wood ducks continue to sort out who’s gonna be with whom for egg-laying season.

This last image should probably come with a warning for folks who are squeamish about critters whose name rhymes with “Jake”. If you think that might apply to you, maybe don’t scroll down.

All right, now for the biggest news of the day. I’ve been searching for this sight since the first summer of taking these pictures, back in 2020, and I can’t believe that today was finally the day for my dreams to come true. This darling little specimen, about the size of a pencil, appears to be a pale DeKay’s brown snake (Storeria dekayi). I read that they are named after James Ellsworth De Kay, an American zoologist in the early 1800s, and that they primarily feed on slugs, snails, and earthworms.

This is yet another brand-new species for me. How many more can there even be? I found it under a nice flat rock, which I had picked up to put into a muddy patch of the river trail. Once I saw what I had done, however, I knew I had to cover it back up, but I was afraid I might harm it if I just put the rock back down because it was quite heavy, and I would probably never get it into exactly the same place.

Instead, I took a couple of pictures, of course, and then I put the snake in the palm of my hand to warm it up a bit. I put the rock back into place, and once the snake was warm enough to start moving, I let it loose right by the edge of the rock in hopes that it will soon get back home safely. Initial indications were that my plan was working, so I moved on and left it alone.