10-8-2011 Indian Summer at Boyden

Following a week of cold and rain, we were delighted to hear that the weekend was going to be warm... like in the 70s and 80s warm! Sadly, the previous Wednesday night had had a frost in some places. What herp in their right mind would come out after a frost had happened? We wanted to see.

We chose Boyden because it has been a good late season spot before. Well, the abandoned house gave us a very nice surprise... one of the most beautiful Milk Snakes of the year! Andrea grabbed him for photos. Please indulge us as this guy was so beautiful... and he turned out to be our only snake.





I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeVille...


We put him down and he happily slithered back to his place between two boards.


And that is about as beautiful as you can get in nature!

I had my eyes really in tune in hopes of seeing more wildlife. Somehow, I saw this katydid in the grass-

After we photographed it, he pooed on my hand.

Redbacks were in abundance... some were small-


but many were humongous- among the largest I have ever seen! Here is a gallery of Reds and Leads for your amazement.





This one is with eggs... hers or slug eggs? I don't fucking know!


This one was buried up to his neck in soil...


There was a Spring Peeper out and about too... also quite large! (For a peeper...)


How 'bout a Green Frog?


That same puddle had this guy in it... egg tooth intact!

We'd peeked into this puddle but had initially seen nothing. Then we saw some hikers who said that 5 minutes before we got there, they'd seen a Snapping Turtle hatchling. So, we went back and scooped up mud and this guy was in it!


We put him down and he went back into the mud with surprising speed...



Toads? You bet! Here's a Fowler's!


And an American-

and another...


Can I get an "ooh ooh" for this Field Mouse?


While flipping stones in the fragrance garden on the way out, we were surprised by this very vocal American Toad!



Its chirping sounded a little something like this:


On the way out, we decided to check on our milky pal, to see if he was still there. He was.


It was a fine trip, despite the lack of multiple snakes. We'd have stayed longer, but we had to get to a party/ BBQ at out friends house. Our friends who have Dekays in their yard. Dekays that look like these ones...



These two mini-twins capped off a lovely herp day.