The Wilding

Yesterday, I walked on a boardwalk trail, over swampy terrain. I went to this trail in search of the prothonotary warbler.  I had my camera and a water bottle and the weather was fine.  I followed the trail's curve to the right when I saw a boy, maybe ten or eleven years old, up ahead about 40 feet away.  He was on his knees reaching into the water. I wondered what he was staring at and hurried my pace, but stopped frozen in my tracks when his arm zipped into the water and pulled a snake out by its tail.  It wasn't a huge snake, maybe 4 feet long. The snake just hung from his hand in a straight line and then the boy swung him over his shoulders like a beach towel and kept walking.  It took me awhile to catch my breath.  I started walking after him, wondering if I should intervene in some way, but the snake, which I recognized as a non venomous northern water snake, stayed perched atop the boy's shoulders of its own free will, looking as if it were enjoying the ride, checking out the view, repeatedly sticking out its forked tongue in a jovial fashion.

I lost track of the boy and his pal after a while because I sat down on a bench, hoping for a warbler sighting.  I never saw the prothonotary warbler, but the afternoon was delightful all the same.