Another Bristol County Saturday. 8-12-2017

Same story, different week. The weekdays were pleasant, the weekend forecast was iffy. Whatever. We took a chance and went to a formerly favorite spot in Bristol County, one of the many now-Racerless, cleaned up for human consumption parks. Still, the place has its magic and we can't give it up so easily.

We got there under threatening skies but luckily, things held out for us. It was cool and cloudy when we hit the trails. Turtles probably would be hard to come by so we kept our expectations low. Our first animal sighting was a very small Green Frog, looking quite bewildered as it sat at the water's edge.

All noggin on that guy.

Out boards were removed earlier in the year and the ones that we'd hidden yielded nothing so we carried on our usual route. A pretty Garter was waking up just off the path in some brush.


As we were photographing that guy, Andrea saw this large Fowler's Toad spring up out of a hiding place.


Did I mention toads? This place has been referred to (by us) as the toadiest place on Earth. While it doesn't always live up to that label, it did this fine Saturday. We saw them in all shapes and sizes... tiny ones, molting ones and "soon" ones were seen in short order.




On a beach near the far pond, we saw an old friend... a beautiful Fowler's with a bum back left leg.

His back leg drags as he hops but as you can see, he's otherwise quite healthy and his disability doesn't slow him down at all. That's an impressive survivor.

As I was scanning the water's edge, Andrea was struggling to corral a weird specimen... a small Fowler's Toad with 5 legs.

This guy was unencumbered by his extra appendage. He was a tough one to get photos of.

I think this is just a conjoined twin deal, rather than an environmentally mutated specimen.

I like to think that somewhere out there, there is a mad scientist toad (Dr. Fowler?) who is farming extra body parts for this colony... perhaps this extra limb is intended for our friend above. The mind boggles.

Where can one go from there? How about to a log that was covering two snoozing Garter Snakes?


Turtles were indeed few and far between but these two Painters were attempting to bask.


In the distance, we could see a turtle basking high above the water, perched precariously on a branch. I said to Andrea that it must be a Musk... they seem to be the best at climbing like that. I was wrong.

We had never seen a Red-eared Slider here before. (Welcome back to the park, humans. Please deposit your unwanted pets anywhere.) This one seems happy and healthy enough. Good on him. I snuck around for a different angle.

The Painted Turtle creeping up in the background makes me laugh every time.

Another duo of intrepid Painters.


It was a short while before we got to our next fruitful spot. The grass near a vernal was sure to have some young Pickerel Frogs in it. We searched and saw none. Then we searched again and the grass started moving. We were right... wee Pickerels were there but they were so small, they'd hop and disappear under the grass. I finally got the camera on one before he did his magic act.

I'm embarrassed to say just how difficult it was to get that one photo!

Heading back along the trail, Andrea nonchalantly flipped an unlikely piece of bark and found our first Milk Snake in this park in a couple of years.

This feisty little Lamp bit her repeatedly, even broke the skin once or twice. Tough guy!

He made his point. We think he is post-blue, ready to shed at any moment. We didn't handle him for long.


We headed back to the car. In a beach-like area, a group of teens were being loud, vaping, screaming, littering (I hope they cleaned up after themselves) and reminding me why I think humans that aren't us should be banned from this place. Not 50 feet away, in the grass, a pair of large Garters were resting, oblivious to the caterwauling.

Oh, to be deaf like them.

We left the place and went for some lunch (Mandarin Buffet). After a little shopping, we headed over to the Water Snake place down the road a stretch. Our first sight there was a beautiful, bright green Bullfrog.


Further in, this large Nerodia was laying atop the wall.

She made a very slow, deliberate retreat into the wall as we were watching her.

I was dipping into the stream looking for turtles. I flipped a rock under the water and was very surprised to see a small Water Snake coiled under it.

A nearby woman came to check it out. I love snake fans.

Spotted Sandpipers were poking around the place and, even though I already have them on the year, they were making some irresistible poses.


The shadows were getting long and even though we were enjoying ourselves (and we knew that the following day would be herpless because of family stuff) it was time to hit the road. Our last sight was a Nerodia noggin poking out from some rocks overlooking the water.


Not bad... a nine species day. I still don't think we've had a ten species day in Massachusetts this year, but it's not about the high counts or Facebook likes or any of that shit. It's about experiencing nature, learning about it and doing what you can to preserve it. And for a change, we didn't get rained on.