Texas Ratsnake climbing a tree.

I caught this Texas Ratsnake around Fredericksburg Tx.  It was a little over 5 feet long.  Texas Ratsnakes are excellent climbers and will climb almost anything.  This was decided to climb a tree after I released it.

Bristol Bluebonnets

My parents, my wife and my 1 year old son took a trip to Bristol to do some photography in the Bluebonnet Trails.  We brought a chair and we had three of us taking photographs.  We had a good time, it was just really crowded.  I bet there were over 75 people taking photographs of kids in Bluebonnets in a couple acre pasture.  Overall it was a lot of fun just really crowded.

Orbweaver spider

Found this orbweaver after the storms in Dallas last weekend.  Did a short photo shoot with it before releasing it.  I have only seen this species of orbweaver a couple of times.  Not sure the exact species name though.  This one seems to get about quarter size.  Ive never found any that were larger or smaller.  They don't appear to be aggressive as Ive held them a few times and never had one act aggressive or bite me.

Baby Red Ear Sliders

The storms that hit north Dallas April 17th and 18th cause a few ponds to flood.  The flood waters were going through my neighborhood and was carrying baby bullhead catfish and baby Red Ear Slider turtles.  In a few hours we found 10 baby turtles floating down the ditches.  We photographed them and released all but two.  I kept two for my 6 year old son.  These are some photographs we got.

East Texas Gator Farm

My family was looking for something a little more unusual to do with our two boys.  We settled on taking them to an alligator farm.  One of the closest ones we could find was the East Texas Gator Farm in Grand Saline.

From our house it was about 1.5 hour drive.  We got to the Alligator farm around lunch time.  The weather wasn't great, it was sprinkling.  We still managed to have a good time.  We counted 41 alligators between 4 ponds.  They also had a bunch of tortoise, snakes, ring tail lemurs, a camel and much more.  It turned out to be a pretty good trip.

Alligator Snapping Turtle

This is a small Alligator Snapping Turtle that was in my Koi Pond.  I noticed that my fish started to disappear.  One night I went out with a flash light thinking I had a water snake or some other animal catching them.  Found this Alligator Snapping Turtle in the pond.  Not sure how he got there as the nearest water source is probably 1/2 a mile and my yard is completely fenced in.  Either way, it was released in another local water hole.

Earthsnake in an acorn.

These are some photographs I took of an Earth Snake hiding in an acorn.  I was digging around in the yard and notice this acorn was split and had a snake in it.  I took a few photographs of the Earth Snake before it got scared and came out.

Earth Snakes are tiny snakes that only get about 6 to 8 inches long.  They are not aggressive and completely harmless.  Earth Snakes are usually found in leaves and in the grass.  They eat tiny insects.