Nature Page 1

This guy was about 7 feet long and as thick
as my wrist. The largest black rat snake
I've ever seen.

This snake was trying to get a little sun near the shore of
Lake Aeroflex at Kittatinny State Park

Below is a collection of photos that I have taken while at home, hiking, biking, fishing or driving about the countryside. Forgive the quality of some of the photos. Sometimes you just don't have the time to get it right and you only get one chance

I found this little fellow while I was working on the
Vernal Pool Survey for the state in the spring of 2003.
He wasn't of any value to the study, since they do not
live or breed in water. They live in moist areas under
logs, leaves and rocks and lay their eggs there also.
I've read that they are the most common vertabrate in New Jersey's woods. I certainly found lots of them
while looking for other things.

These tiny lovers were found in Randolph while I
was working the Vernal Pool survey in early April.

This gobbler was so busy trying to impress his
girlfriend, that he hardly paid any attention to me.
She kind of hurried away while he chased, stopping
occasionally to display his fine feathers.

This is probably the only way I'll get a picture of a Coyote.
I've seen several live ones, but they're usually "high tailing"it when I see them. This one was along Flanders-
Drakestown Road in Mt. Olive.

This mother killdeer was attempting to save her
nest and eggs by decoying me by pretending to be
injured. She splayed her tail, spread her left wing
out, and put her right wing up while hobbling across the ground, hoping I would follow.

In the autumn of 2002, I spent a day hunting woodcock in
the Delaware Water Gap NRA with my friend Jack and his
German Shorthair Pointer "Tober".

Each winter, the whitetail deer bucks shed their
antlers. It is not too difficult to find them if you
walk the deer trails. I found this one in Randolph.

This hawk was injured, probably by a car, and was in a tree next to my driveway. I initially thought it was a Northern Goshawk, but they're so rare around here and I later made a positive identification of a Sharp Shinned hawk, which looked very similar. So, now I don't know. It was not ossible to catch him. If I thought I could, I would have turned him over to the Raptor Trust.

This large grub was under the roots of an overturned
tree in Jenny Jump State Park. The tree was freshly
fallen. It wasn't windy, so, I assume someone pushed
it over as they walked the trail.

This fox had a severly injured front leg. He spent a
lot of time lying in the sun, trying to recuperate for
several weeks in my daughter's back yard. The
animal control folks didn't want to get involved. We
don't know what finally became of him, he just
eventually stopped coming to this spot.

I spotted this Katydid on a leaf of a
mountain laural in my front yard.
Talk about color matching!

I caught this 12 incher on the Claremont
Stretch of the South Branch Of the Raritan
river in Long Valley. You can see the "gold
ribbed hare's ear" hooked in his upper jaw.
This was the first fish of the day. I caught 4
more a little later, on dry flies, when the trout
began coming up. The rest were brown
trout, but this one was the biggest for the
day.

While on a hike, in the autumn of 2002, with my wife, Pat,
and my daughter, Lori, in Reston, VA, I saw this 8 point
buck standing off to the side of the trail. He was waiting for
us to pass, hoping we wouldn't notice him. I was less than
20 yards from him when I took this photo. His camoflage
was pretty good, don't you think? He got nervous while I
was taking pictures and bolted into the woods.

I never seem to tire of seeing swans in a pond. How
come I don't feel the same way about Canada Geese?

These naturally made snowballs do look like snails, don't
you agree? They were formed when snow dropped off
the tree branches and started rolling down the steep hill.
The phot doesn't show it, but that slope is very steep.
My friend, Chuck, from Saranac Lake, says that's what
they're called up there, in the Adirondacks.

We came across some of these while snowshoeing at
Stevens State Park near Byram. They are only about 1/2 - 3/4
inch long and, somehow, crawled out of the cracks and
crevases of the ice that had the brook solid. Nature never
ceases to amaze me.