So hiking day #2 was pretty eventful starting off. I'm uploading photo's out of order..but this was the find of the day, obviously.

So, myself and 3 others headed out to the nature trails at UWF (University of West Florida). Upon reaching the trails, first thing we found was not this - but a little fiddler crab (pictures soon). After messing with the crab for a while, we hit the board walks. Saw turtles in the river..and then my friends caught site of this. Immediately I tried to identify but had a hard time doing so. From the boardwalks it resembled a copperhead. So, I got OFF the boardwalks to investigate.

I had to make a choose - try to grab it, risk getting bit by a venomous snake or take pictures. I took pictures.

After zooming in and everything, I was able to identify it as a harmless species...and was then confirmed once I checked with my buds on facebook.

This here is a hypo (the morph) red banded water snake, aka Nerodia fasciata. They are mostly fish and frog eaters and have 'keeled' scales..meaning the scales are rough. They stick close to water and are just awesome snakes overall (I owned a juvie for a short while). =)

So yeah, here's the best find today. :D Going again on Sunday.