A Short Swamp Walk

Last Sunday, before we left Goose Creek State Park in North Carolina, we took a short walk on a wooden walkway through a thick swamp.  Carlton and Libby had hiked this the day before and saw tree frogs and anole lizards.  It was a great place to slowly explore and look for critters, of which we saw a few - birds and reptiles and amphibians.  We walked for about 45 - 60 minutes, very slowly, probably only covering about a mile of walking.

The trail was called the Palmetto Trail, and it went right through the swamp.

This southern leopard frog was one of many that we saw.

Cattails in a marshy area.

This fungus is called witch's butter.  Does it look like something you would like to spread on your pancakes?  Not me!

This is a palmetto and you can see it has a bumper crop of berries, which are eaten by a wide variety of wildlife.

We studied this snake for a while.  We wondered if it were a cottonmouth, but a close up photo of its head that Carlton took did not reveal pits that vipers use to sense the heat of their prey.  The same photo, when compared to pictures, made us believe that it is a nonvenomous banded water snake.

Again, I am very glad we didn't risk it going out to Shackleford Banks and instead enjoyed camping out and exploring in Goose Creek State Park to salvage our trip.