Another warm one today. The turtles were paddling around in the pond and the frogs were silently sitting, waiting for the night so they could sing. Three more kids were added to my group due to yet another staff member becoming ill. Always room for more, I say. We hiked up the creek and down some trails, stopping here and there to look at fungus and amphibians. We even found a small, upset Ringneck snake on one of the trails. I'm not sure if somebody accidently kicked it or if it was mad just because we were walking by, but it was in full defensive pose with its tail flipped upside down and corkscrewed to show off the bright orange/red of its underside. I picked it up and inspected it for damage, but it seemed okay. Just mad. I let one of the new girls release it along the side of the trail, where it quickly disappeared into the grass.

For the night hike, the frogs were indeed singing. Above us, finally, we could see stars. After several weeks of cloudy skies, this was a treat. The fact that the evening was moonless helped as well. Now if we could just get all of the people to turn off their lights. Maybe somebody should monkeywrench some power plants. It would make it much easier to stargaze.

Between hikes, I had to come home so I could dispose of the rat that the python killed but did not eat a couple of days ago. I hadn't noticed it was still in the cage, but it soon made its presence felt by stinking up the house. The damn thing was swollen up to almost the size of a football. It reminded me of this taxidermied rat up at the Youth Science Institute - the one that kids always wanted to throw around because it too resembled a football.

Lovely.