Five-lined Skink
Ramapo Valley County Reservation
Bergen County NJ
June 2023
The blue coloration on immature skinks is always very striking! Five-lined Skinks are the only wild lizard found in North Jersey. Adult males have large orange heads while females are more of a bronze coloration. Adult skinks do not have blue tails.
Never seen a Skink? You’d need to be hiking near a natural body of water w/o pesticides or perhaps near rocky cliffs in New Jersey.
Canon 77D +Tamron 100-400mm
Red Milkweed Beetle
Greendell Marsh Ecological Preserve
North Jersey
June 2023
A bugs-eye view of an agricultural section of the preserve.
Canon M5 + 28mm macro
Virginia Rail
Troy Meadows
Parsippany NJ
June 2023
A less than stellar shot of a secretive freshwater marsh bird.
Timber Rattlesnake
Northwestern NJ
June 2023
I located this snake “by ear” after hearing some movement in crackling leaves below blueberry thickets.
This rattlesnake neither rattled nor coiled at me. We simply observed each other for a few short minutes. I believe this rattlesnake was on the smaller side as it was not much wider or longer than a common water snake.
When I am hiking into “snake country” I wear hiking boots + jeans and I bring a long telephoto lens for these chance encounters.
Canon 77D + Tamron 150-600mm
Trail with Mountain Laurel, 2
Bass River State Forest
New Jersey Pine Lands
A different angle of the flowering Mountain Laurel from last week.
Canon M5 + 11-22mm lens
Trail with Mountain Laurel
Bass River State Forest
New Jersey Pinelands
June 2023
I was not expecting to shoot a landscape at midday yet I had to try to capture the spectacle of peak blooms of the Mountain Laurel.
Canon EOS M5 + 11-22mm
Dave Blinder Nature Photography 