Mud Lake

It has been a very busy week so I did not get any chances to get out shooting. On Sunday April 20th I decided I needed a fix of photography so headed out to Mud Lake near the Britannia filtration plant. Last time I was there the trails were still snow covered and walking was too difficult, but Sunday the trails were good for walking. There were a few wetter spots but these were easy to go around. It was such a beautiful spring day and many of the forest denizens took advantage and came exploring. While walking the trail with my head looking up for birds I heard a sound from the forest floor. Kind of a buzzing sound. I first thought it was bees but then I noticed this cute little one. Fortunately when it noticed me it froze long enough for me to approach and get this shot. While many people do not like or are actually afraid of snakes I think they are extremely beautiful reptiles. Mind you I am not about to run to the pet shop and start purchasing every snake I see, but in their own environment they are an important part of the ecosystem.

After the little Garter snake slithered off we continued on our trek around the South Western end of the lake. The small bay is quite often the home of turtles and various ducks. Earlier on in the spring I got pictures of a pair of Wood Ducks. It seems they moved into the small bay area as the area by the road is getting quite busy with people coming to see the spring birds and the greater number of Canada Geese that have moved into the lake to breed. But while in this area we spotted another of the lakes reptiles. This medium sized snapping turtle at first had just it's head in the water maybe looking for food to swim into range of its jaws. But I know they could not hold their breath forever so I waited for it to come up for air. I say it is a medium sized turtle even though its shell was probably a good 1.75 to 2 feet from end to end. But on a previous trip last year we had the opportunity to see the granddad of snapping turtle. I have pictures of it on my website. This one's shell had to be a minimum of 3 feet across in width. The head was like the head of some prehistoric creature.

We spent about 2 hours wandering around Mud Lake that day. Other creatures we saw and photographed were Wood Ducks, Canada Geese, Painted Turtles, Common Flicker, White Breasted Nuthatch and a male Cardinal. There are still many more spring birds that have not arrived, but the walk is well worth taking.