Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The Waters of Chelonian Surprise 5-6-2012

After two weeks of no real herping, we were so eager to get out that we didn't even care that it was only about 55°F and cloudy. Well, we might have cared but we were going ANYWAY! We'd decided on Massasoit State Park in Taunton... one of our favorite new discoveries from last year.

It was really raw out when we arrived at about 10:30 AM. I was checking to see if my breath showed (it didn't) and I put the hood of my sweatshirt up. We saw a cool Redback, but the picture sucked. We made it to our favorite part of the park (lots of AC- artificial cover) and saw a very chubby Fowler's Toad!
DSCN4347
Check out those lovely colors!
DSCN4351

Then, much to our surprise, there was also a very cool-to-the-touch Black Racer!
DSCN4354
He was in a shed and very very blue all over, much like the OverBite Racer of last year. We wondered if this area produced high-blue Racer morphs. Doubtful, but it's food for thought...
DSCN4358
DSCN4365

This is Andrea's first time holding a Black Racer!
Andrea's first Racer!

We released him and he slithered home.
DSCN4374

Not bad, considering it was so cool! Now, anything else would be gravy!

We saw some Red Velvet Mites, which are pretty. Mmmm... better than the cake!
DSCN4380

And, in keeping with the color scheme, we got some decent photos of some Redback Salamanders finally!
DSCN4383
DSCN4390

More Fowlers Toads started showing up!
DSCN4379
DSCN4389
DSCN4400

I flipped a large flat stone  that was on some sandy soil and there were 4 Fowler's under it!
DSCN4394
Check the far left of the above picture... this guy's noggin is sticking out...
DSCN4395

Wrangling all 4 for a photo was no easy feat, but we eventually managed to shoot what we call the Toad Summit!
Fowler's 4-pack

We looked for turtles, as it had warmed up a bit and the sun kept trying to peek out. But no. There were some Plovers poking around, though.
DSCN4399

We weren't sure how much we had in us, being so cool and all (plus were were 2 weeks out of practice...) But Andrea wanted to see if we could find a turtle, so we headed around the pond for different vantage points.

At one bush next to the trail, I thought I heard a "swoosh". I investigated and saw a thin blackish tail disappear into a pile of vegetation. I poked through it for 5 minutes and found nothing. I was foiled by a slim snake.

We scanned the water from a sandy path between two ponds. No turtles.

On the way back up (to continue around the pond) I decided to look at the place where the snake had handed me my ass. This fella was there, all checkered and cute! A Garter Snake!
DSCN4412

He was nuts and very hard to photograph but eventually calmed down. Looks like he might have had a fairly recent meal in him.
DSCN4417
DSCN4420

By the way, when we released him, he went back to the same vegetation as earlier. We were able to recreate what I had seen before...
DSCN4424

So, on the far side of the pond, we got our wish... there was a Painted Turtle basking!
DSCN4431

Then, not far from there, we saw a bunch! In fact, before we snapped the pic, 3 or 4 plopped into the water!
DSCN4435

We took this shot, then noticed something when looking at the picture... the big Snapper head behind the stump!
DSCN4437

I got closer and got some noggin shots...
DSCN4441
(That's a Painted head on the left, not far from the hoisted turtle and the Snapper head on the right)

Caught this guy mid-hoist!
DSCN4443

So yeah! Chelonian surprises! But none so surprising as our photo of the Blue Heron. We hadn't seen all of the Painted turtles in this shot until we got home and uploaded it!!
DSCN4434

So, we were extremely happy! 2 snake species, 2 turtle species, a toad species and a salamander species!

On the way out, Andrea found the first Leadback of the day!
DSCN4448

Then, things went all Rana on us! We heard these two Bullfrogs before we saw them!
DSCN4445

And what better way to end the story of this trip than to blog about two frogs in a bog?! (Green Frogs, to be exact!)
DSCN4449
DSCN4450

That's all I got. Good day, indeed! (Oh, and the sun came out for good on the drive home....)

5 comments:

  1. ¡Andrea, el sapo gordo es un príncipe!!!!!Mike,cuidado!!!!!!Cariños Martha

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sigue la historieta "Chali" un beso Martha

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gracias, Martha! "Chali" is beautiful!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Did you go to the Buffet for Lunch?

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'n sorry, Anon... I didn't see this! We haven't been to the buffet YET!!! 4 trips to Taunton, too! I'm sure we'll remedy that next time!

    ReplyDelete