Two Walks: Visiting a Bog, Plus a Few Reptiles and Amphibians

On Friday afternoon, I went to check out the O.D. von Engeln Preserve. This Nature Conservancy property has some interesting glacial formations and a variety of habitats, including a bog, which as I understand it is pretty unusual for this area. I don't get many chances to explore bogs, and I very much enjoyed the path through this part of the preserve:

The bog was filled with big and beautiful flowers from the Purple Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia purpurea). How does one plant get to eat bugs and have such amazing blooms?
 

These are some weird flower structures -- fitting, I suppose, for a plant as strange as a pitcher plant:

In another part of the preserve, this small Garter Snake was basking in a sunny patch on the forest floor:
 

I'm hoping to return to this place in the coming months to see what other interesting flowers might show up. Bogs are fun!

This morning, Paul and I went for a walk at the Roy H. Park Preserve, where we met this creature on the path:

A little Common Snapping Turtle! It's got the long tail and spiked shell of a snapper, but it's just a baby monster as yet:

Hello, little monster, you are very cute:

This morning's walk also featured a singing Blackburnian Warbler and Indigo Bunting (both too far away for my camera), and a small American Toad crossing the path:

I love that it's the time of year when reptiles and amphibians are common, and new wildflowers are appearing seemingly all the time. Summer is on its way!