Behold, the Northern Water Snake!

It was a day that took us all over the place. We shopped. We ate out. We visited a local park. We had a car appointment. We hiked and sat along Bald Eagle Creek. We ate out again.

My husband inherited his dad's 2010 Chevy Impala a few years back. We started calling it the Clickmobile when a door actuator went in the dash, and it started to click loudly when you'd turn on the heat or A/C. And I mean loudly. Turns out there are four actuators in the dash, and they have something to do with regulating air flow.

An actuator is a device that takes electrical energy and converts it into physical motion. In this case, it opens doors to let air flow in and out. When you turn on a heater or an air conditioner (in this car, at least), some of those doors in the dash open and close to allow air to move.

My husband replaced one actuator a few years back. Recently, a second one went. A few days after he replaced it, it started clicking again. Amazon sent us a replacement part, and our mechanic put it in AGAIN on this day. While they did that, I walked in the wetlands down along Bald Eagle Creek.

It was a warm day and I suspected I'd see a snake. Well, my joy was DOUBLED when I saw not one but TWO snakes. First was a garter, small and stripey, that I nearly stepped on when walking around a fallen log.

DO THE SNAKE DANCE!!! my brain ordered. YOU KNOW THE SNAKE DANCE! it said. And I hesitated, thinking that I should be careful not to dance ON TOP OF the snake itself. I quietly leapt over it, willed my reactive brain to STOP WITH THE SNAKE DANCE ALREADY!!!!!

The second was this water snake Nerodia sipedon, which I found in the creek, along the edge, trying to swim up over some big rocks that sort of made tiny waterfalls. The current was too strong for it, and it ended up hanging out in the shallows not far from my feet.

This harmless snake is often confused with the poisonous copperhead, and murdered for no good reason. The water snake has a much skinnier head than the copperhead; however, people who are not snake enthusiasts might not wish to get close enough to tell the difference. 

I took a lot of photos and a few short videos. In this shot, you may see its adorable forked tongue! The snake was an amazing swimmer, and it was fun to watch it flying along like a whip of muscle, its head held high above the waters. Eventually, it tried again to traverse the rocky waterfall, and failed, and it slipped down into the shallows. I never saw it again after that. Farewell, little snake. Well met!

My soundtrack song for this fun snake sighting is Lee Ann Womack, with I Hope You Dance.  :-)