October Surprise

Sony A7, Rokinon 14mm, F16 1/20 ISO 320

The surprise came shortly after taking this photo. My son and I were done wandering around Willow Lake and I had just taken my 15th "one last shot" and we turned from this tree to make our way back to the trail.WWHHUMMMP!!! Something had fallen from the tree tops and landed about 4 feet from where I was standing. My son and I turned to each other and said "what was that" at the same time. It was loud when it landed and the floor of the forest shot up dust and random bits into the air. I was thinking a branch had broke away from the top of one of the very tall trees, and thought about how lucky we were that it hadn't hit us! I walked a couple feet to investigate, then stopped in my tracks. It was a frikken snake! Big sucker too. The snake looked dead or stunned and wasn't moving, and I wasn't waiting around to check for a pulse. I turned to my son and said, "Don't freak out, but it was a snake!" He freaked out. This all happened about an hour after I told my son that snake season was pretty much over. I guess I was wrong, but since when do snakes fall from trees? We made a fairly brisk exit from the forest and by the time we reached the main trail we were able to start giggling about it, The giggling didn't stop even after we got home. In all the years I've been shooting, I've never had a snake fall from a tree, and I'll be just fine if it never happens again!
Willow Lake, Prescott Arizona.