Bears and Snakes and Leaping Fish, Oh My!

                                         

Tiny Garter Snake Quickly Slithering Away & Family of Bears

A few days ago, I posted a blog entry about my son and I watching fish struggling upstream, braving the whitewater and leaping as strongly as they can past it, although none of the ones I watched actually made it all the way to the top of the falls. That would have been a sight to see!

Well as it turns out, I have seen some other pretty cool natural wonders of this region in recent days, as well. First, my son and I saw a Garter snake while hiking on Monday. In fact, I initially did not see it, and he yelled out to me to watch out. As it turns out, I almost stepped on the little snake. Fortunately, that did not happen. Instead, we stopped and watched, and eventually got it to slither away to safety in the bushes.

Then earlier today, in the early morning daylight hours, there was a family of bears (it was between two and three) which crossed a busy road. It was enough to temporarily stop traffic, and I decided to try and snap some pictures. Now admittedly, they are not the best. Indeed, I have taken better of some bears in the past. Yet, these were the first bears I had seen in a few years, so I was still nevertheless thrilled, and thought that I should share these images here below. You can just make them out, particularly in the right corner, although one or two of the pictures does show more than one, if you look closely. 

The Garter Snake During Hiking

Thought I'd also add the previous blog entry on the fish upstream from a few days ago while I am at it:

Watching Fish Struggle Upstream at Dunkerhook Park

(published May 8, 2023)

Spring and autumn are my favorite times of the year, particularly those narrow windows when the weather is actually quite mild. Recently in New Jersey, the weather has felt as ideal as you could ask for, almost perfect. Today as I write this, it is a bit on the warm side in terms of temperature, yet the humidity is virtually non-existent, making it very comfortable. It is bright and sunny, and the evenings are still cool and refreshing.

Just days ago, the nights were actually quite a bit cooler, even chilly. I was even able to see my breath at night and in the early mornings. The days were not quite as warm, yet again, they were mild to bordering on warm, and again, very comfortable. Those are the days which I, personally, quite enjoy. As ideal as you can realistically ask for, neither too oppressively hot and humid, as often is the case during summers, or brutally cold and icy, as is often the case in the winters, particularly during the nights. Unfortunately, this mild time lasts usually only a few weeks during both the spring and the autumn, but we are blessed to be experiencing it now.

We did receive a lot of rain in recent days. Not surprisingly, the water levels are quite high. So yesterday, when the weather felt almost perfect after I got out of work in the afternoon, it seemed like a good idea to take my son out to a park and enjoy it. For a change of pace, we went to Dunkerhook Park in Paramus, New Jersey. 

As it turns out, we saw something that I had never seen before, and I doubt that my son ever saw before. Again, the water levels were quite high, and the usually mild waterfall was more powerful than usual, with even some white water rapids in the immediate area. And for the first time in my life, I actually saw fish jumping and trying to muscle their way upstream through the white water. It was something which I had only seen before on television in nature documentaries and such, but never actually in real life, with my own eyes, in person. 

Until yesterday afternoon, that is. None of the fish that I saw actually made it atop the waterfall, at least not while I was there. But it really made our walk and afternoon enjoying the outdoors feel special and unique. 

So, it seemed like a good idea to share some of the pictures which I took of this, as well as a brief video which lasts about one minute. If memory serves correctly, there are at least two or three times when you can actually see fish struggling up the stream, and one is, I believe, visible roughly at 38 seconds in, thn again 55 seconds in. In the final seconds, you can see it (I think it is the same fish each time, but cannot know for certain) in the final seconds of the video. This felt like such a privilege to see in person, and probably, the video does little justice to it.

Still, it felt like something worth sharing.

Enjoy!