spiders and snakes

On this trip, we had more animal encounters. We saw our first cow of the season standing at the stock pond when we drove up. It ambled away by the time I fumbled for my camera.

But we did get a photo of this snake. Gerald saw it first and called to me to come out and look at what he found. At first, we could only see the tail and thought it might be dead. As it turned out, it was only digesting dinner. When we checked for it later, it was gone.

Our phoebe fledglings were also flitting about. They seem to think they own the place. Of course, they were born on our porch rafters, so for all they know they do. One even flew into the house and landed on the refrigerator. Gerald told it to get out of the house. And it did!

We saw this tarantula on our way out. It wasn't moving much either, but it was alive.

Last weekend, we also saw a bobcat. It was bounding away as we were driving out of the Ruger Ranch entrance, looking like a giant house cat. That was the most exciting thing we'd seen since the foxes.