April 10th, 2011... back in Mass.

Twas a Sunday with temps in the mid-60s. Not exactly a heatwave, but it was as warm as the week before in North Carolina, so we went to Ponkapoag. At least the redbacks should be out, maybe more.

We got to our favorite vernal pool, which I guess should just be called a tiny pond... it's usually there, even when it's been very dry. Since it is usually very Phibtastic, we looked for egg masses.

We found this one, which I think is a Pickerel Frog mass.


This was near it. It looks like Spotted Salamanders, but I've never seen them in that area of Ponk. Anyone?


Along the dam, we found our first snake of 2011, and imagine our surprise that it turned out to be a Ribbon Snake!



He crawled up Andrea's sleeve and was just a beauty in every respect!

So... snakes were up and about in Massachusetts! Good to know!

Further up the pond, there was a behemoth Snapping Turtle just under the water.

To make sure we weren't repeating ourselves from the week before (by photographing a dead turtle), I poked his shell with Andrea's walking stick. He retracted his back legs, so we knew he was OK, if a little cool.

Like golf? Nor do I, but I like animals that live around the course! Andrea looked down and saw this lovely yellowy Garter Snake partially hidden by leaves.


A very beautiful specimen!

We continued and did the full walk around the pond... ambitious for early April... before our herpin' legs were ready to go!

Hey, is it suspicious that we hadn't seen any Redbacks yet? Never fear!

First up was a Leadback, followed by many many Redbacks. We lost count! Let's just show some pics, shall we?

Leadback!!





Until next time... try to enjoy the daylight...