Sunday, January 13, 2013

First Herps of 2013! What took us so long? 1-12-13

Well, we've been just nutty with the need to herp. There's been snow, ice and nasty New England winter-type stuff. But you just can't herp in the winter! Can you?

With temps in the mid-40s, drizzly rain, fog and no sun, we headed over to a Salamander-friendly hike area in Norfolk County. The one behind a school. In Brookline. It was about 2 PM. The entrance looked a little something like this:
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It was only about 15 minutes before we found a Redback!
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And some more!
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This one slid into a hole before we got the shot! Are those her eggs, or slug eggs?
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I'm calling slug.

Let me reiterate... it was January 12th!
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Yet the Redbacks were up! Here is our calendar shot, courtesy of Andrea...
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I flipped a fairly heavy puddingstone and Andrea gasped "Oh my Gawd!"... there were 8 (!) Redbacks and Leadbacks under it!
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They were scattering everywhere, but we got a few good shots!
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This is the group retreating into holes and under leaves, which was nice, because I didn't have to move them myself to return the rock to it's original position!
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Me an' my puddin'stone.
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It took a while, but we finally found a couple more further along... there are two in this (not so hot) picture... you can just barely see the shine of one in a hole to the right of the other guy...
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So, yeah... it was Winter.
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This Muskrat didn't seem to mind the icy water!
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Even all bundled up, Andrea cuts a fine figure of a herper!
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We only added two more Redbacks, but they were beauties!
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The shy one came out for his close-up, eventually.
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So... we had about 18 Redbacks on January 12th. Earliest herps ever. By my estiamtion, 2013 will be a good year because if we're chompin' at the bit so bad now... just how nutty will we be when the snakes come out?!


7 comments:

  1. I was out for a while yesterday and found one redneck! (*redback - "auto correct" I had to leave it)I Consider one herp in January a success! You guys rock!

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    1. One is better than none! Would any of us have even considered going out in January in years past? We all rock... all of us intrepid New England Herpers!

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  2. Redneck!!! Awesome! I would leave it too.

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  3. My first herps of the year were 3 dusky salamanders yesterday. Strangely, I haven't found a redback yet.

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    1. Nice!! January herps are a rare joy! Duskys are actually lifers for us! They're just not in this part of the state!

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  4. ¡Lindo el paisaje con hielo y lindos Andrea y Mike !!!!!beso x 2 Martha

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