A late September to Remember! 9-28-2013

I just got 3/4 of the way done with this post and lost it. This rewrite, that I write while very sad and disappointed, will not be nearly as good as the lost version. Anyhoo...

The Herping Season is coming to a close. Not that we'll actually not herp all through the winter, but snakes are going to be increasingly difficult to find and our species counts will start to dwindle. That said, the weather was supposed to be in our favor this Saturday, so we chose to hit up our favorite Wildlife Refuge in Bristol County. After a stack of loaded pancakes, that is.

We arrived between 9 and 9:30 AM and headed first to the verboten area, where a sleepy little Garter was coiled up.

If he had any hands, he would have rubbed the sleep from his eyes.


Next, we saw an adult... very much in a shed. Literally.

She was cold to the touch. Her tail looks like it might have been gnawed on at some point.


Obviously, Garter Snakes were still around! Next, we flipped this wee guy!


About 10 feet away, I flipped two baby Garters, but my camera wasn't cooperating, so I had to pick them up. One took great exception to that while one didn't mind it... guess which was which?!


That bitey guy flattened so much, he looked like he was hooding!

The resident American Toad was back home! It was nice to see him again. This has been his spot for over two years!


His neighbor was a strange one to find in a stone wall... a shiny Pickerel Frog!


With the return of cooler weather comes the return of Redbacks!


The sun had warmed up and some Painted Turtles were taking advantage of it in a new (to us) spot on the river!


Here's a chubby Pickerel...


And some more Redbacks!


A pond that is usually good for Green Frogs was very very low. It still had some tadpoles in it, much to the delight of this Sandpiper...


Since we recently broke the seal on Spotted Salamanders for this place, it seems only fair that we find another and pose him on the perfect leaf!


We got to a sandy part where we like to look for successful turtle nests and when we found one, it was being guarded by this toad!


We did find another hole that looked like it hadn't been predated. I dug around and sure enough, found many empty shells deep inside... this was a successful Snapper nest! Hey... there was someone who hadn't managed to climb all of the way out yet!

We took him to the shore and watched him take his first ever steps.

Under a small piece of rubber, I flipped three American Toads!


Here's a nice Leadback!


Basking space was at a premium!


We finally found a Green Frog!


Cormorant Love!


At the half-way point, Andrea found our first Wood Frog of the day!


We started seeing tons of Redbacks. Here are five more!


We decided to check out a small creek for Two-Lined Salamanders, a pursuit that we don't often do here due to extreme bugginess. I'm glad we did. We found many, some were large and dark.


(shy)

Lots of nice variation here... check out the lower left! 15 minutes well spent!

The "graveyard" produced no snakes (and let's face it, we came to this place to find a Milk Snake!) but a couple of Redbacks and a toad were there!



Later on, we found another Spotted! Damn!


Do I hear calls for more Redbacks and a Toad? Here y'are!




Here is where I lost the post before. You can see why I was upset.

Anyhoo, we were walking past the spot where we had seen the hatchling Snapper earlier. He was gone, either into the water or eaten. Andrea decided to feel around in the hole again. There was another newbie ready to meet the world! And another Toad!


Nice egg sac, man!

Andrea found some nice frogs... a Green and a Pickerel!



I changed into my Turtle lens and found many chelonians basking! These all appear to be Painteds!





Here's a nice Green!

There was a young Bullfrog near him that I just couldn't get a clear shot of! Oh well... a species unrepresented!

There was a possible nest right in the path along the river. Andrea felt inside and there were many empty shells again. Not very deep and perhaps in danger were these two...

I dug a hole off the path, around the side and placed them in it. I built some sand ledges below the hole so they wouldn't fall 3 feet down right into the water upon stepping out of the burrow. I hope they do OK.

We headed back up, deciding to double-check a few spots since we had been there for 5 hours already. Yes, we walked though the verboten area again. This baby Garter was crawling around near where the blue-adult was earlier. (She was now gone).



We got back to where we flipped the wee coil earlier. His rock was empty. But right next to that was this spotty fella!

We thought it might have been the same guy but upon inspection of the photos, it turns out that this guy is our seventh different Garter of the day!

I went back into the woods, tearing through rock after rock after rock, determined to find a Milk and be a hero to Andrea. She called to me. She said "Milk"!

She was my hero! She'd found our first Milk Snake since June 30th!

A beauty, this guy never let up... striking repeatedly and shaking his tail!




Well, that's more like it! Mission accomplished! On the way out, we saw this nice Wood Frog.


We got a bite to eat (Papa Ginos) and headed over to Oliver Mills to see if any Water Snakes were up. There was a family there and one guy was pointing under a bridge and said culebra.  I was there in a minute, doing my best Spanglish. The guy spoke perfect English, too... luckily! He was pointing out a small Water Snake that I couldn't see. I climbed down and still couldn't find it. I saw this guy though...

To the squealing delight of the family, I pulled a musk-spraying Nerodia out for all to enjoy!




I flipped a baby Water Snake, which charmed the family as well!



On the way out, we checked Musky McMuskington, who was back in his usual spot, warming his noggin and waiting for the next time he can cover me with foul smelling bodily fluids!


So shit... September 28th and we scored 12 species and ten snakes! The year ain't over yet... oh no it's not!