Workin' it on Labor Day. 9-7-2015

We couldn't hope to match our outstanding day in Plymouth County the day before, but we still hoped to see some animals on this Monday off. We headed out fairly early, knowing it was going to be in the mid-90s very soon. By 10 AM, it was already over 80° in Bristol County... no time to lose.

We hit the trails and headed to a favorite stop. Our boards had been moved a bit... it looks like some fucknut had been herping... definitely a herper... and not replaced much. Thanks, shit-stain. But anyway, (under a moved board at that) we uncovered this small in-the-blue Garter.


Nearby, we found this pretty good sized Racer, again under a moved board. Hmmm...

This, our first here in quite some time, had some shed rips... he must have been feeling a bit dry.

^I like this picture... I look slim.

So, we went from this:

To this:

Not a bad start.

This Fowler's Toad was peeking out of his burrow in a gravely hill.

Just after snapping this shot, he darted out to catch a bug buzzing by. Too slow with the trigger finger, was I.

Again, Pickerel Frogs were hopping everywhere. I love September!


Some Painteds were up basking at the edge of the pond, though they were a bit obscured by plant life. I like this little guy's extreeeeme  yoga!


This young Bullfrog was much easier.


A stone wall area that used to be good for lots of snakes, but hasn't been since a burn last year, gave us a lovely Garter with a disappearing dorsal stripe.


A flip produced a Fowler's beating the heat.


Andrea scored a few Pickerels as I was changing my shoes...


^Golden goodness.

We flipped a hot rock in the middle of a field and saw this (in-the-blue) stripeless Garter! What a sweet one!


A warm pond-side puddle had some frogs enjoying it. A Bull...


and our first Green of the day.


This Viceroy butterfly was begging for a shot.


We scoured the edges of the pond. I had a baby Water Snake hand me my ass.



We moved up-trail. I got to a spot to peek in on basking turtles and saw a gigantic Redbellied Cooter basking. He saw me too and high-tailed it into the drink before I got a photo. Drat!

I'd hoped another would be up at the next opening, but it was all Painters. (Note the yoga feet poking out from behind the stump...)


Another little Green hiding in the reeds.


While Andrea was looking for Wood Frogs, I sat on a rock and looked at my photos. Then I noticed that I had acquired two friends.

The little jumping spider has such a cute face!


Speaking of cute faces, these Bullfrogs have the same.



Here's a pretty Pickerel.


Peek-a-boo Fowleri.


I flipped a log and saw a snoozing, stripeless Garter. What I didn't see was the swarm of Yellowjackets I had disturbed. Andrea and I ran off quickly, but there was still the matter of photographing the snake. I snuck back, got it...

and then got it again as I got stung on the elbow. Ouch.

I wanted to replace the log but they wouldn't let me near. I got a long stick and prodded the snake until he woke up and slithered under the log in its new position.

Walking back, we saw a bunch of trash bags filled with clippings. Why not poke through? Sure enough, we found the day's trash snake... a very young Garter that Andrea made an expert catch on.


Hey, without even looking for Wood Frogs, we saw one.


This was not flipped and not uncovered. It is just a Fowler's sitting in a hole right out in the open, stewing in his own crankiness.


The next flip was unexpected... a newly metamorphosed Spotted Salamander.

It was 95° out but this guy was under a cool, damp log.

Next up, we flipped this little doodle of a Redback, giving us our third straight day of double-digit species.


On the way out, Andrea found this Racer skin... nearly 6 feet of Coluber constrictor had recently dropped that. Damn, I wish we saw it do it!


So that is the wrap up of a wonderful weekend in nature. First Racers since May and lots of babies. We're still on the lookout for hatchling turtles. September ain't over yet.