Dreaming of a Herp Christmas 12-22-2012

Inspired yet again by our friend Steve's herping tenacity (his webpage is here), we found ourselves taking a cool walk around one of our favorite ponds in Norfolk County Mass... but on December 22nd??!

It was a crisp 38°F, far colder than we like. But intrepid herpers never complain!

Much.

We set about poking through some icy streams...

I saw a couple of sleepy Pickerel Frogs, possibly the same ones as a couple of weeks ago... here's one.

An area further down the stream had some lovely 2-Lined Salamander larvae hanging out!
I saw the golden back of an adult 2-Lined breach the muddy water after a stone flip, but I was never able to find him after that!

Andrea had wisely packed some wading boots to get down and dirty in... But that mud really SUCKED!

Undaunted, we carried on!

After a couple of hours, some cutting winds had whipped up and we started to remember why we don't go outside in the colder weather. Faces were freezing! A chubby Redback found on a flip warmed our souls, if not our bodies!

It dawned on me that I was herping with my Christmas bonus in my pocket, so the next Redback got to pose unlike any other Redback before it...

These guys were waiting for their handouts...

We'd reached our destination stream, cold and snotty. Still, we wanted to find an adult 2-Lined, so in we went. I saw the golden breach on an adult but, as often happens, he eluded me. He was still fast despite the ice water...

OK, now it was getting painful! Our hands were burning with cold from sifting through the icy water and our clothes were wet and muddy. We headed back. We saw one more Redback on the way back to the car. Crazy mofo, too... we couldn't get a good shot, he was so active! We had to settle for this:

Man, the heater blasting in the car never felt better! When people ask if we ski, I always say "no, we never make ourselves uncomfortable on purpose", meaning... go outside in the winter?? No way! But to see a dozen herps in the winter? Yeah... it really was worth it!