LIFER! literally no words, this has to be the rarest snake in the piedmont of North Carolina. Yep! This sighting was in the piedmont of NC! went herping with a buddy, hiked many long hours inside a huge marsh/swamp habitat, not a single snake. We reached the edge of an agricultural field with a nice slow water marsh, and we found this mudsnake at the surface of the water just chilling near the base of a half submerged fallen tree.

this is not what I expected to find at all, not only that but this snake was massive! 3+ feet. I would have never guessed to have found a mudsnake today and a true “lemon head”.

This snake proved to be the hardest to photograph I’ve ever encountered! They cannot sit still and any cover placed on them they will push until it is moved. I also noticed an unusual defense mechanism where this snake used its tails to move as if the tail was its head. Its head sat still while the tail “creeped” around the ground imitating a snake searching the ground/water. I’m not sure if they are known to do this, either way I am super happy with only one snake this week and it’s the rarest around here!

FINALLY! an alive spotted salamander! I have been trying to find an alive one for weeks but only found DORS like https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/196703792 this observation. Today was also my last chance to find one, the roads didn’t seem active so I didn’t have much hope but luckily turned this guy up before he got hit

This has got to be the most morbid thing that I have ever found in nature that I photographed. A deer that had its stomach opened up and was being eaten by magpies while still alive. This was something that I just never saw on any of my frequent trips to Yellowstone NP when I was younger. It was very unsettling.

Lifer! Legit like the fourth snake of the year, I haven't gotten out at all this month. I haven't even seen a racer at my house before this guy lol! While I'm photographing some lunatic walks by and starts ranting (with plenty of obscenities and cussing thrown in because why not) about respecting nature and that she's gonna report me. I was making sure to keep the encounter legal, so she had no grounds for anything. She was pretty sus, fun experience. I don't recall now if it was exactly at the moment or a bit before, but I was just telling my brother that I didn't expect much quality because of how late it was, but we should still be able to find some racers. Nope! One and only snake, and pretty much the only herp asides from a gator or two and as many anoles. It was stretched out on the grass and I knew what I had to be looking at. Writhed a bit and then posed for a few minutes. It was insane. Pretty cool out like 68 or seventy-even and cloudy, with decent humidity for the dry season and light rain just a few minutes before. Looking back it was probably pretty good weather for muds. It was pretty awesome especially considering I was only expecting a few starved racers. I don’t usually fave my own observations but I’m pretty stoked about this one.