Everybody Herps Before the Weekend July 17th and 18th

After that amazing vacation week that we shared, Andrea and I were having a tough time doing the work thing and not herping. And since we have an enabling, frequent herping partner in Teá, things just tend to get done... even on weekdays.

We had read about Nira Rock, a small "urban nature" spot tucked away in Jamaica Plain. The web page suggests walking and seeing "little green grass snakes". Well, given our infatuation with Smooth Greens of late, we thought we'd go look for ourselves. On a Thursday Night.

It was a little tough to find at first because the place takes up almost no space! We actually incorrectly checked out a schoolyard first. We found a Garter skin, human excrement and, best of all... two Dekay's Snakes there!


Faces don't get much funnier than this!


Then we got on the right track and headed into Nira Rock. There was plenty to flip and our first find was a big Woodlouse Spider!


I found the stinging nettle while Teá found a Garter under a flipped log.



While we were putting the logs back in place, she spotted this wee Redback!


Ascending the hill, this Garter was poking around in the early evening sunlight.


Just a bit further up, we found this stunning high-pink Dekay's!



A Stag Beetle was soon flipped, too.


At the top, we saw no more herps, but we enjoyed poking around the sunny summit. There was plenty of Milkweed growing and each plant was buzzing with bees!


So, that was a quick hour or so and certainly worth the time! We will check back here from time to time, searching for the "little green grass snakes" and everything else.

So, Friday night, Andrea wanted to go to Brook and Millenium for a quick walk at dusk; she's still obsessing on the Milk Snake she saw there a few weeks ago. So we tried... but the phone kept ringing. We finally broke free and got there at about 7 PM. Our first herp (after quite some time) was this tiny American Toad!


Next to the stream, there was a Nerodia all tucked snug in his bed, while visions of projectile musking danced in his head.


Sun was setting...


Finally, we saw a cranky Garter!


But time was a'wastin'!


One more cranky Garter...



And we headed back. The Green Frogs were up... at least their noggins were.



So we went home, ate and hit the hay as early as possible. After all... it was now the weekend and we'd have some herping to do for the weekend!