Observations by christinarscanlon

When I first got close to the edge I saw something jump into the water and flutter away. I could slightly see a small turtle swimming away but the water was not too clear. Then after about an hour, I came back to the same spot and slowly got in the water. As I approached the water I saw about 3 baby turtles scurrying around underwater. I watched one carefully and when it settled to the bottom I was able to reach down and grab it. This turtle was quite active and did not hide in it's shell much. It was ready to crawl away at any point.

Found under a large rock about a foot away from the water's edge. Flipped the rock and found about 6 other small leopard frogs under the rock too. Let the frog go in the water and then it came back on shore and I placed it back near the original rock.

Found these two deer feeding in this large open field off of Co Rd 253. We turned around the corner of the road on the four-wheeler and looked into the open field to find these two deer. I was probably 500 yards away from them and was able to get some pictures through my binoculars. Once the deer saw us, they looked in our direction for a minute or two and then were gone when we looked back after we turned around on the road 5 minutes later.

Found this anole sitting on the fence of my backyard. I was able to get very close to this anole before I caught it. It did not move when I got close, but once I caught it I'm sure it was very scared as it peed all over my hand. After I took some pictures, I put the lizard back on the gate to leave it alone.

City mockingbird found sitting on this power line. Really cool sighting, as this bird had a large fly in it's mouth, which it had just caught. There were many other mockingbirds out this night, many were singing.

Found sunning on a trail at BFL. Almost stepped on it and then I realized what it was. Snake was hissing and flattening head and body more. After I picked it up, it seemed more stressed. Snake never struck at me, and once I put it on the ground, it quickly slithered into a nearby pile of brush. Such a cool snake.

Found this large turtle sunning on a small island at the greenbelt. It was not in reaching distance but the turtle moved it's head and looked toward us when we stopped close by. This allowed for better identification. There was also about 3 other red-earred sliders sunning very close to this large turtle on the island. Some of them were scared into the water by our noise/movements.

Found this lizard sunning on large logs in a rocky bed along the greenbelt. Walking close to the large pile of logs initially scared the lizard and made noises that allowed for us to acknowledge the lizard's presence and then find the lizard. After taking some pictures, the lizard was scared deeper into the pile of logs.

This bullfrog was found in my BFL acre. I walked up to the pond and I was slowly getting closer to the water's edge when I heard a slash of water and I knew I had scared whatever was on the water's surface. After sitting close to the pond for quite some time, I looked back this frog along with another were peaked back up on the surface. I attempted to get closer and with leaves crunching below my feet, the frogs were scared again. I sat near this pond waiting for these frogs to come back from about 30 minutes. The frogs would come back, I would attempt to get closer and I would then scare the frogs again. There was about 4 rounds of this until I was able to get close enough to ID the frog.

Found sitting on shore surface. Mostly likely foraging for small cricket frogs. Initially scared snake into deeper water. Came back 10 minutes later to find it back on the shore. Was then able to more easily catch it.