Crisp Fall Day

(October 18th) Today was a gorgeous day, so I headed out to see what I could find. Possibly there would be some migrating songbirds, but at least there would be some fall color. I struck out on the migrants, but there was a lot of color, mostly yellows.

There also was an odd thistle still blooming. Not quite sure if it had gotten the hint that snow would soon be here. Anyway, I took the opportunity to admire its thorny beauty.

Some of the trees were full of ripe berries. These would provide food for creatures in the upcoming cold months. For now they gave extra color.

The biggest surprise was a Eastern Garter Snake out taking advantage of one of the last days warm enough for it. It was in the darnedest of places and I was lying on my belly two feet away for the shot. I kept waiting for it to come out of the brush, but after all my waiting, it just turned and went in deeper. I would have liked much more depth of field, but the background got even more distracting as I pulled in more of the snake.