Omg Such a Cute Garter Snake!!!

This morn, I had my usual ear ache thing that comes from the fact that I need some work done on my teeth that I've been putting off for over 4 years. However, I really wanted to get out for a morning walk. Both myself and John love getting up real early and getting out before civilization crawls out of bed and goes out to the areas we enjoy too. We always see something cool early! By early, it began as 6:30 but lately, it's moved to about 8 - 9 am lol! This morning, I was slow to get out so it was after 9.

We chose the right time afterwards though we realize. If we had not have, we may not have seen this cutie patootie!!! A little garter snake. I so wanted to pick him up! He came towards us on the rocks on the beach just as we were about to step off the path onto the shore. "omg a snake a snake!" I'm screechign as I raise my camera so fast thinking I may only get one shot of the cute little thing. He sat and looked at me as I crouched though, for about 5 mins. It allowed me to really get to see him and also ensure that I hopefully would have a nice focused shot of him, so I can see him again :-) He shot his tongue out at me a few times before he finally high tailed it into the opposite grass and bush. No luck getting to hold him :-(

Lots of dragonflies today out too, hawks, spiders on the rocks, and lots of people out lookign to the skies for raptors. We saw 2 hawks. We also had a second exciting adventure seeing the Belted Kingfishers, 2 pairs of them, flyign back and forth and hovering a few feet from us! I think I even got a Swamp Sparrow if I am correct with the ID. Quite the morning it was.