We got there at about 10 AM and for the first bit, we didn't see anything! No frogs, even (and this place is full of frogs). We didn't see a herp until the very end of the first pond, when we got a long distance glimpse of some Painted Turtles.
And around the shore, we started to notice frogs... like a Green.
Some Pickerels...
And some Bulls.
Andrea caught an American Toad...
while this one caught me!
We found a rare August Redback!
And then the turtles began.. Painted Terror!
This Bullfrog was HUGE and beautiful!
We finally got our eyeballs on a snake... this Garter was in the bushes.
He completely handed me my ass when I tried to pull him out for more photos. Just made me look foolish!
We got to some abandoned Beaver dams, where there are always Water Snakes. I saw a small one flit off quickly and a huge fat one slowly descend into the tangle of sticks. I got a hand on fattie's tail and very slowly extricated her, a bit at a time. She wasn't as long as I thought at first when I saw the girth.
She'll be dumping a shitload of babies soon, methinks! She bit me for my efforts.
Further up the trail, there were two more large Water Snakes. One went further into the bush while one stayed close for a photo.
(You can just see the tail of the other one, just left of center at the top edge of the picture.)
Man, these Water Snakes are massive!!
Painted Turtles seemed to be on all basking spots, though they often plopped in when they heard our footsteps on the trail. These ones were braver than most:
Another nice Bullfrog:
In the interest of seeing the ponds more, we turned back after going further down the forest trail. We had by now missed a number of Garter Snakes and a Spring Peeper (that just disappeared, leaving me on my hands and knees in poison ivy). We then saw these two Green Frogs ridin' the rail!
Off the trail, we saw another huge Water Snake.
I just had to measure this one! It was pissed, like all Water Snakes.
This brute turned out to be 40 inches!
Never landed a bite, either! Hah!
Another Water Snake was basking near the water's edge, a much smaller one, and this is the best I could do before he slithered off.
Andrea spied another wee Toad!
Then, after 3 or 4 misses, we found a Garter Snake that we could get close-ups of!
Yeah, she was pissed too. But look... no dorsal stripe!
I didn't think she looked that big because she was thin, but she measured out at 31"!! It looks like she has recently given birth. Check out the extra skin!
Two beauties!
We then decided... what the hell? Let's go around again!
A pickerel and more Painteds!
Near a boardwalk, we heard a swoosh... and this small Water Snake came gliding past us.
One of the beaver dams now had a Garter basking on it!
No lack of dorsal stripe there!
At the next boardwalk, I saw a large Water Snake moving into the bush off the side. I pulled him up, he bit me and I put him on the walkway for photos.
We got some great shots and then let him crawl off. Another big snake. Then Andrea pointed to the many splashes of blood on the boardwalk. It seems that this one had given me a pretty good slashing bite! The skin was separated and gushing nicely!
This is the first time I have ever had to actually dress a bite in the wild! The little devil got me good!
Andrea rested...
before taking this shot of a Pickerel hiding in the grass!
Our last animal was a very cute American Dagger Moth caterpillar!
He adopted Andrea's shoe.
On the way to the car, we missed two Wood Frogs. We really didn't have much luck with some of the animals this day but we saw dozens of herps so there's really nothing to complain about! I mean, if we had managed to capture any of the Garters that we couldn't grab, our hands would smell even worse than they already did... which was BAD! Blood, Sweat and Musk... nectar of the Gods.
¡Maravilloso Cariños Martha
ReplyDeleteGracias Martha!!! Much love!!!
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