Northern Water Snake, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Wildlife Management Area, ME

I am not quite sure how I saw this snake, about 10 feet out over the water in a tangle of branches from a fallen tree, but I was looking for Dragonflies when it caught my eye. I had to look twice…no…three times…before I convinced myself it was actually a snake wrapped around the branch, hanging on with its tail. A little research yesterday afternoon showed it to be a Northern Water Snake, relatively common in Maine and through out the northern states, but it is certainly the first one I have seen in a tree, and, other than the endangered Erie Water Snake, the only water snake I have seen beyond a nose and a ripple in the water. The Northern Water Snake is highly variable in color and pattern…this one is about as brightly patterned as they come. It did not move, except to fold its head back on itself and close its eyes, in the hour I was at the pond, so I have lots of pictures of it…including a super-high resolution 8 image panel assembled in Photomerge showing the whole snake in all its glory (if you could view it on a very big monitor). For this shot, which is more conventional, I have pasted in a close up of the head for your viewing pleasure 🙂

Nikon P900 at 400mm and 2000mm equivalent fields of view. Main image: 1/320th @ ISO 100 @ f5. Assembled in Photoshop and processed in Lightroom.