Sort:  

Sorry I never got back to you sooner! The garter snake was very sluggish - must have just come out from a cool place (we still have freezing temperatures at night here) He hadn't got enough warmth yet to get really mobile so I could walk up real close and all it did was lift it's head.
As for taking photos of the birds I have a good zoom lense on my camera plus if I want to catch them in flight I pick something close by to focus on and track them to catch them in motion. Hope that helps!