Bridger was up fishing at the pond when he spotted a snake swimming by.

D5100 f/22 ISO 800 1/250s 55-300@260mm – Summer 2012

Later that morning I went up to take some mid-day photographs. Usually I am there just after sunrise or just before sunset, but it turns out there is plenty going on in the heat of the day. Bridger’s snake swam by a couple of times, looking mighty cool and comfortable in the pond water. It surely was more comfortable there than I was on the bank in triple digit heat!

It is a pretty powerful swimmer if we can judge by the ripples it is creating! Does anyone recognize the variety of snake?

One more visitor to the pond.

Nikon D5100 f/6.7 ISO 400 1/60s 55-300@300mm – Summer 2012

He trotted casually up to the pond while I was standing stock still waiting for a dragonfly to return to a stump. He didn’t notice me for some 25 minutes, but he was hidden in some brush where I could only occasionally glimpse an ear when he moved. Consequently, I only have two photos of him from that morning.

The photo is somewhat out of focus. It is amazing there is any sort of focus at all, as I had done something I rarely do, turned it to manual focus in an attempt to capture a dragonfly skimming the pond surface. My autofocus kept bringing the reflection into focus instead of the surface of the water. When I saw the coyote, I forgot all about focusing and just snapped a photo – I did, barely, remember to roll the little wheel, changing my aperture to allow for switching from sunlight to shadow.