Chelonian Madness at Massasoit! 7-8-2014

Sitting here on a Sunday morning with days and days worth of herp adventures to remember and write-up (we were both off all week), I'm wondering if I can remember way back to Tuesday! Well, I can and here goes!

We started out early, to hit 50s Diner for some breakfast. We gorged ourselves on "fully-loaded" pancakes and got to Massasoit at around 8:30. It was going to be a super-toasty day, mid 80s by noon, so we wanted to see as much as possible before the heat really set in.

Our first herp encounter was this young Bullfrog, doing a wonderful Ride-'em-Cowboy pose!


After Sunday's Borderland Toad-stravaganza, we wondered just how Toady it was going to get here. This Fowler's hopping across the path got us off to a good start.


The horribly "cleaned-up" area where we have enjoyed 5 species of snakes in the past had retained the boards that we removed from the "haul it away" pile and at least one of them had been utilized by a Racer or Milk, as this smooth scaled skin would indicate.

I understand the clean-up, but zeroing in on this ONE place is heartbreaking. Animals have been living here, dammit!

Walking up a path towards the water, we saw a feisty Garter Snake... a new sight for this particular path!

The Garters here are particularly beautiful, scars and all.


Also on this path was an American Toad... much harder to find here than Fowler's.

The photographer and her model.


When we got to the sandy soil, we started seeing many Fowler's in SOOOON!! mode. Here are a few.





When we reached the pond, Andrea promptly flipped a teeny Pickerel Frog!


Obviously, we were going to have to put a moratorium on toad photos, but not before this shot.


Andrea, as she is wont to do, spied an interesting Painted Turtle young 'un.

Check out this interesting shell on it!



Meanwhile, I had been stalking a stack of turtles... a couple of Painteds and a Musk enjoying a bask.


Then, Andrea found another wee Painted!

He was a bit more feisty!



"Who, me?"

A Bullfrog and a Fishing Spider made for strange stick-mates!


Andrea was wading deep into the water (the temps had risen rapidly) and got this shot of a Darning Needle orgy!


She also got this new Green Frog.


Here's another Musk, basking with a well-balanced Painted!

I stealthily moved around through the reeds to the other side of this stump and just as I had the turtles in my view-finder, a Red Winged Blackbird zoomed in to the spot and scared them both into the drink! Damn!

Another spot found some Painted Turtles basking among some large lily-pads. These were both decent sized adults.



That's probably a Redbelly in the background of this shot (judging from the size) but it's not an ID worthy photo.


The other side of the pond was full of Painteds, too. (The binoculars had earlier revealed some large Redbellies over here, but they had moved on)




Let me interrupt this Chelonian Love-fest with Big Year #72, the Eastern Towhee, who was yelling "threet" at us repeatedly.


OK, back to the shells.



While I was in turtle mode, Andrea was accosting this Fowler's.


This dragonfly chose to land on my face. It stayed there as I fidgeted with the camera to take this shot.


Yes, it had become quite hot.


Tiny Toads were indeed out, but this is the only photo we took, Andrea's brilliant in situ.


Heading back out, I was about 15 feet in front of Andrea and turned around to see her holding this guy!

Another fine looking Massasoit Garter!


So, that wasn't a bad day at all! Plus, we got home at a reasonable hour. 6 1/2 hour hikes are great, especially when they start early!! (And I was still full from the pancakes). So, even though I'm on an unpaid vacation, this day was totally worth it! What would tomorrow's herp adventure bring?