Snake in the Water

John and I went to Cascade and the Owasco Wetlands yesterday. It was a great day. The weather was so perfect and we got to see some special sights. The best image of the day was lost to weakened batteries in the camera, however. I had put fresh ones in when we first got there, but I saw so many things to photograph that they were too weak to zoom in to get a picture of the beaver we saw. John spotted it and pointed it out to me. First it was in the water swimming, then got out on the opposite shore and rummaged a short while and looked like it had a stick or something in its mouth and slipped back into the water and swam back to our side of the shore just a little too far ahead of where we were standing and disappeared into the underside of the bank. It was a huge beaver!

Earlier we had climbed up the bank off the side of the road so we could get a better look at one of the "cascades" and there was a cool piece of "driftwood" in the water. While investigating that, John spotted a snake in the water. I thought it was a little strange because I thought snakes liked to lie on a rock in the sun--not submerge in cold flowing water!! Guess he was just cooling his jets.

It was great to see a family (and their little dog) out enjoying nature together.

I was amazed by all the skunk cabbage growing in the Owasco Wetlands. I guess it's edible, but only after complicated methods. I never knew they had flowers either. Here is a link to provide more information (if you are so inclined): Stalking the Spring Harbinger, Skunk Cabbage

When I took this picture, I wasn't sure if there actually was a great blue heron perched on top of a mound sticking up out of the water (it was too far away and too small in the camera's viewfinder), but I got lucky.
We also saw quite a few trees with interesting "blossoms". I would guess that maybe they are some kind of willow, but not sure. I found them interesting though.