So I went for a swim yesterday after work. This spot is far from being a local secret, however the light inconvenience of getting there (except by bike) nicely limits the numbers of people usually.
Medium temperatures around 24C meant relatively few people:
I took to a medium sized round (less than half an hour) and sat around for a while afterwards.
The lake has a terraced beach, rather high steps. Last few years, the lowest stop was maybe two meters from the water, not so these days. Water level seems higher than usual, while mother duck is watching:
At one point a couple of young ducks came along, a big hit with the kids on the beach:
Out of sheer luck I saw a snake. Can you spot it? Hint: click to enlarge the photo, then check near the tree.
Apparently I sat close to where it wanted to go. It swam right in front of me and came rather close, at about two arm's lengths. Sorry for the low image quality, there was little time to prepare:
It then vanished into a hollow behind the trunks used to form the steps on the lowest of which I sat:
Here is an older picture, you can see the bank stabilisation with tree trunks. I hadn't thought this arrangement to form an actual habitat, but it does.
My guesstimate is the snake was about one metre in length, quite extraordinary size. And beautiful, a light blue hue. It also didn't seem to mind the people much and knew exactly where to go.
I have no clue what kind of snake it was, but knew to keep calm because they all are nonvenemous around here. A common species is the Natter, a colubrid as the internet translates for me. The little bright spots on the cheeks are a pointer. Do they come in blue-ish? Any clue?
#berlin #see #schwimmen #schlange #natur #natter
