We got there in the late morning and it was warming up nicely. Andrea visited the facilities while I sat outside on a rock wall. I had found our first friend to observe... a beautiful olive toned Garter laying in the sun.
When Andrea approached, she got this well lit photo:
While watching that snake forage for a bit, we noticed another not-as-striped body moving about...
We let them be and went around the visitor's center to flip some debris before hitting the trails. This triple Redback flip was pretty exciting. Look at how tiny those wee ones are. That's a dime, Mortimer!
Around the back, Andrea scored a Leadback and another tiny tot.
Just how cute is that noggin?!
One more stop before heading out in earnest... a woodpile where this bright Garter was exploring.
It was official. We were off to a great start.
Once we were on the trails and next to the ponds, things slowed down a bit. But just a bit. This Garter was in Snakespread mode, collecting some morning warmth.
A peek into the pond got us a glimpse of one Painted Turtle, despite the low water level in this particular area.
I had walked right past this dusty Water Snake. Andrea saved the day and got the better photo, to boot.
A Painter, livin' large.
I never have enough fish on the blog. Here's a young Pickerel. (Thanks to Mike Z for helping me ID)
We got to a good 4-Toed and hatchling turtle spot but saw neither of those things. We did, however, flip a remarkable Spotted Salamander.
The blue "enameling" on its side made Andrea send out some queries about the possible hybridization between a Spotted and a Blue-Spotted.
We're sticking with pure Spotted but it sure is an interesting individual.
While she was concentrating on that salamander, sending pictures back and forth, I looked down and saw a skinny little Ribbon Snake.
I caught it so Andrea could see it... not the easiest thing I've ever done.
Further along, while looking for salamanders, I flipped a Bald-faced Hornet queen.
We got to a point where there's a small smattering of round rocks on the ground, not even something we would normally look through. Except a couple of years ago, Andrea unexpectedly pulled a decent sized Milk Snake out of there. So, we've looked ever since. But this day, Andrea flipped one rock and then said what a fluke it was that one time. Before leaving, I casually flipped one small stone...
That was our "holy shit!" moment for the day. Check out that wolf-mask on the top of his head. Halloween ready. It was a feisty one, too. Obsessed with Andrea. Her shot:
My shot:
Pretty cool. Only the second Milk we've ever seen at this park. Same unlikely pile of rocks.
We continued on, realizing that we hadn't had a four snake species day in a hell of a long time. We sat for a bit, just looking at the water and autumn colors. Sadly, the shadows were already getting long and the temps were dropping. You tend to forget that days are so short at this time of year. We started back, taking a trail along the pond again. A few die hard Painters were still grabbing some rays.
Craning my head (and camera), I saw a humorous turtle pile-up in the distance. I had a good idea where this basking spot was... and we were headed that way.
This Water Snake still had a sunny patch and was reluctant to give it up. This is near where we saw the morning Nerodia.
We got to another angle of that pile-up and it wasn't quite as messy as it looked from the other angle. Still mighty impressive, though.
Before leaving the park, we looked in a few more places, which got us a squiggly Two-lined Salamander.
So, was seeing a bunch of animals while hiking in beautiful weather with the woman I love better than being at work?
Ummm... yup.
and and and FISHIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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