The Company Picnic 8-17-2012

My Summer work party was held at my boss's house in Stow, MA this year. He often regales me with stories of his resident Green Frogs and the multitude of turtles in the river behind his home (The Assabet) and the visiting snakes in his yard. Needless to say, I had to get Andrea to this particular party. With all due respect to my work friends, I'm going to only concentrate on the animals we saw.

Sure enough, the planters that my boss (George) told me had become home to Green Frogs, were... a home to Green Frogs! This large fella had the whole pot to himself!


Some flipping in the front yard produced a gorgeous Leadback! So nice to see a salamander! It had been about a month!


Further inspection showed another Green Frog enjoying a second planter! This guy was much smaller...


Andrea and I sat down by the river for a spell...


Out in the distance, over my shoulder, a Heron was hanging out in a tree... gaping in the heat.


We went up for a snack and the first Green Frog was looking for a handout...


It should be noted that Andrea saw a Garter Snake tail speed into a stone wall, but she had no chance to catch or photograph it!

Ryan (who everyone remembers from our Connecticut trip last month) kept trying to get me to go out on the river in kayaks, but I wouldn't go without Andrea. He finally suggested that the two of them go in a canoe and I'd follow in a kayak. I'd never been in one before, but this sounded suitable to me.

(Andrea had never been in a canoe before either...)

Well, this is where the turtles were! Dozens of them! Ryan reached in and scooped up a young Painted Turtle!


I followed suit a while later. My only problem was, I had a Jack Russell Terrier on the bow of the boat! It seems that Lola goes on every kayak trip! I got used to her, but she tried to eat this lil fella!


We had put the three wee Painteds into the canoe to take back to show everyone. We saw dozens and dozens more. The two I caught were fairly easy... I saw their noggins up, then as I got close, they put their heads down, but the shells were still visible!

We saw a LOT of this out there...


I had to turn back because Lola was crying and shivering. As it turns out, she had to pee. The canoe came back shortly and we shared out Chelonian treasure with the others!



Ryan's version of The Creation of Adam...


The turtle on the left is doing a Dracula impression...






We released them and went and had some cupcakes. Salmonella for everyone!!!!!