Something new... Massasoit State Park 6-18-2011

We'd passed signs for Massasoit State Park dozens of times when en route to Boyden and had always wondered if it would be "any good". We decided to go for it on a sunny Saturday.

We drove there and excitedly pulled over before getting to the actual state park because the lake looked so nice. We poked around a bit because it looked very promising. Sure enough, this wee Painted Turtle was swimming around a thickly padded area, possibly a nursery.


After a bit, we headed to the park proper. We had a (not very detailed) map printed out. We decided to peek into a cranberry bog to start things off. This Pickerel Frog was in it, giving us the chance to describe this picture as A Frog In A Bog...


We headed onto the trails, not really able to tell on the map where we were. No problem. It's a beautiful place, lost or not.

We were in for a super toady day! First up was this Fowler's Toad!


This guy had some serious thoughts on his mind...


I flipped a log looking for salamanders and was surprised to see this Ringneck Snake coiled under it. I often forget that they sometimes like dark, moist and cool places!



Flipping didn't produce too many salamanders, but one log gave us two! This Leadback...

And this Redback!


Let's enjoy some more toads, both Fowler's and American.




We got to a lovely pond and saw a family of swans!


Andrea got this shot... we weren't sure what we had...

Pointy face... higher domed shell than the usual painted...

As we got closer we saw that what we had was a Musk Turtle basking!! A very rare sight indeed!


Wow! Not to be outdone, every available spot was stacked with Painted Turtles!



Andrea noticed movement on the ground. Why it wasn't bugs at all... it was tiny new toads!!

The camera caught this guy in mid hop!


This tadpole had some legs coming in. I haven't ID'd it yet...


The beach had a musk turtle skeleton on it... sad, but interesting.


A flat rock wall. Hmmm... let's flip! Ringnecks! Andrea caught two! This first guy had a super-bright belly!



The next one was no less beautiful...



So... then we saw some toads!






I never get tired of my Bufo Buddies... there is such variation in colors and sizes and all are cuter than hell!

Less easy to catch than toads? Black Racers!

This guy was deep in a shed, so much so that even his belly looked bluish. That helped me get him under control for pictures, for sure. Notice his bottom lip. He's suffered a bad injury, but it was healing nicely. A very cute lil fella!



The same area where we found the racer gave us another beauty. I saw a coil sticking out and got Andrea ready. I wanted to flip the wood all the way because, being a new place, you can't be too careful. We got a good sized, gorgeous Milk Snake!

He was caramel colored between his saddles. Very lovely indeed!



What a friggin' rush!

Did I mention that we saw toads?


We got a little bit lost getting out (the penis tree pointed us in the wrong direction), but we made it out eventually!


Driving home, we were thinking about what a great day it had been! 6 hours in the woods and tons of wonderful herps! We stopped to eat and thought about the fact that we were running very late in getting to a friend's house for an evening get-together. We put off our showers until later and headed straight there.

We'd seen Dekay's Snakes in their yard before, so we figured... what the hell? Let's flip! One mini-Dekay evaded our camera but not this gal!

I do believe we had a gravid female here!


While Andrea was gently handling the expecting momma (who had musked the living hell out of me in front of friends... grrr...) I found another adult Dekays!



So, shit. Was that a great day or what?! This will be one of the best herp days of the year, I predict! Massasoit is now permanently in our location rotation!