Again, we got a later start than we wanted to, but still arrived at Boyden a bit before 11 AM. And we headed right out. Our first herp was this medium/ large sized Garter Snake, prowling the perimeter of a garden.
A real beauty with a typically faint Boyden Dorsal Stripe!
Next up, Andrea flipped a nice Plethodon Cinereus... a Redback.
The bunk beds had another lovely Garter prowling for snacks.
I was all about seeing some turtles and this river is usually pretty good for them. We spied a plethora of Painteds.
In the picture below, all but the guy on the far right got disturbed when a small dog came down to the river and jumped in.
Here's the action shot:
This guy gave no shits whatsoever.
Further upstream, Andrea noticed a small Snapper was basking along with a yawning Painted!
On the branches just above them, a pair of our Big Year #71 were preening... Barn Swallows!
It was pretty hot by now and the place was super dry. When we flipped a trio of Leadbacks and Redbacks, we were oh so satisfied!
Andrea amazed one and all (me, and since we were alone... that's one and all!) by spotting this Tiny Toad.
Probably an American as that's all we see here (though two miles down the road it's 10 to 1 Fowler's).
Back to the river, I turned a corner and passed a bush and came face to face with these Mute Swans.
Why was I getting that scornful look? Oh... I see...
Hey, what's that out on those rocks out there?
Painteds!
^ Yoga!
I'd made some kind of bullshit statement that we couldn't have Mandarin Buffet if we didn't find 10 herp species. Of course we would, but I felt the need to go cool off in a creek and look for a Two-Lined Salamander. Hey... I found one!
We got to a favorite flipping spot. It has trash carpet. Anyone who knows me knows I love trash carpet. So, I was flipping through some and flipped past a small black coil. Flipping back, I noticed it was a dark Garter Snake!
Again, not much dorsal stripe but he's in the blue... we'll see if he gets some after a good shed.
Nearby, I finally flipped a Massachusetts Milk Snake!
The ground was too hot to put him on for fake nature shots but Andrea's hat worked just fine!
We found a broken piece of skin. Definitely Racer. I wonder where the large owner of this shed was!
Heading back, we hit some more Painted spots...
Thankfully, my zoom lens caught this Bullfrog noggin... our first frog of the day!
The guy was a brute. I saw him from about 30 yards out!
My favorite picture of the day was my last at Boyden. This Painted kept coming to the surface, seeing us and swimming back down. Finally, after waiting and staying still, he came up for this shot.
Such a cute smile.
On the way out, we flipped a bit more. I flipped a bee. He stung me on the leg. It sucked. But we went for Mandarin Buffet anyhoo. During the lunch, I was itchy as hell and my palms swelled up. A few other spots too. But it wasn't so bad that we weren't going to continue on to Rocky Gutter after we finished.
And that's exactly what we did.
We got there at about 3:30 and headed right over to the vernals. Or where they should have been. They were dry as a bone. Crackling mud was as wet as it got. So, we headed down the power cut to the wet area, hoping to see some of the tadpoles and frogs that surely were living down there. That was very low too, and muddy... but there was water. And a Pickerel Frog!
A small frog face kept popping up and disappearing, driving me nuts. I finally got a shot of the wise-ass... a teeny Green Frog.
At one point, Andrea said "I'm in"... yes she was. Mud sucked her foot right in and made her choice to wear white pants a bad one.
But we found our third frog species in 15 minutes, so all was well... a hiding Wood Frog.
Andrea flipped a tire and found a very skinny Garter.
It's so dry, I hope this guy can get a meal soon! We let him go back to his tire.
Andrea somehow saw this Tiny Toad.
Plain belly, so it's probably a Fowler's but at this size, I'm not going to stake my (non-existent) reputation on it.
Although we got a Chipping Sparrow earlier in our Big Year, this photo is pretty good, so I'm posting it.
He has a mouthful of pine needles.
At another part of the Gutter, we flipped a trio of Fowler's Toads.
It turned out there was four, but we couldn't get them all photographed. But these two cuddling is pretty adorable.
Our last herp of the day and our 12th positive species was this large American Toad!
So, we left happy. We were toast and still had errands to run but we were everso satisfied with our finds of the day. Sunday was my daughter's baby shower. While we saw no herps, we got to see my kid and my granddaughter... a worthwhile way to spend a Sunday.
