Friday, September 25, 2009

Sunday- Sept. 13th- Arnold Arboretum

We made a late decision to get out and see some nature. We'd planned on checking out our Chelonian pals at Forrest Hills Cemetery but for some unknown reason, it was closed... on a Sunday afternoon. Go figger...

So, we went to the Arboretum. Herps were scarce, but we saw a few Green Frogs and even caught one.
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But beauty is all around that place, as these photos will attest to...
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Let it bee
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Now, I'll leave you with a little lesson on Touch-Me-Nots

Sunday- September 6th- hey ho, let's go to Allendale!

OK, the weather was still nice so, despite being a bit beat from the day before, we didn't want to waste a good day. Come January, we'll be glad we went out even when we were toast.

Of course, Allendale is so close by that it was the logical choice.

We found a cute lil' garter who musked me like there was no tomorrow, but then settled down and became quite the model.
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Snakes bring out the mutated, pathetic idiot in me...
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Anyone else think that rusty old tractor parts are cool?
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This fungus looks like the bass player in Dr. Teeth to me...
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Let's close things out with a rare GOOD spider shot. shall we?
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Saturday September 5th- WE NEED SNAKES!!

After closing out August with two full weekends of prior commitments and shit weather, we finally got back into the woods on a sunny and warm Saturday. Of course, Ponkapoag was our destination.

We were admittedly a little out of practice but we decided to walk the entire length and go around the pond.

The first herp sighting was a lovely little toad that made himself at home all over Andrea
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Pickerel frogs were all over the place... the tadpoles have definitely morphed. They were jumping all over, though they proved very hard to catch. I finally nabbed one.
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There was a massive water snake hiding in some reeds, sunning himself. We couldn't get a picture to do it justice, but he's in there...
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We also saw a heron
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and a pike
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We took the boardwalk through the bog for the first time this year. It was beautiful, as usual. There were a few snakes out and about, like this fella...
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and some cool pitcher plants.
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Still, we hadn't caught a snake. We were so out of practice. I was going to flip a stone when I looked back and saw Andrea causing a commotion about 20 feet behind me. She'd grabbed a garter that was in the process of biting the shit out of her. She released him and he stayed his ground, striking and looking fierce!
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Truthfully, it was amusing because he was pretty small.
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We saw a redback enjoying some dampness under a log.
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And I finally caught a snake... a shoelace ringneck.
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As we were leaving, this green frog bid us farewell.
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Maybe we were a bit out of practice but we had a blast and that's what counts, you douchebag.