Making the Best of a Bad Situation May 11th thru the 13th, 2018.

After busting hump all week at work, the weekend forecast was for cool and rain. Thanks, Mother Nature. You twat. Since Friday was a pretty decent weather day and it was still mild, we went over to a local spot after work and found a couple of snakes before dusk cooled things off too much. First up was a thick DeKay's Snake.


Then we flipped a sleeping Garter.

That was nice. We figured the rest of the animals were hunkered down, knowing that it was about to get shitty out.

So, with the forecast calling for cold and wet, I decided that I wanted to go to Western MA to look for Salamanders. A Hampden County vernal pool out there has been very good to us, with many kinds of frogs and salamanders being seen. If the weather is going to act like that, we were ready to play along. We did our two hour drive and got there late morning. It was drizzly and cool, as expected. What was not expected was the size of the vernal...

It had flooded over yards and yards of flipping habitat.

Undeterred, we flipped rocks and logs along the hills surrounding the pool. We came up with two Redbacks... the first had his head wedged into the log, which made for an amusing sight.

He was fine. I poked his leg and he popped out and scurried off.

The other was a Leadback.

We saw a few Leadbacks but this is the only one I could get the camera on. They usually outnumber Redbacks at this locale 2:1.

We drove through the park to get to a stream area. When things are rough, nothing is better than stream salamandering. We still needed a Dookie on the year, too. First up was a couple of shy Two-lined Salamanders.



Andrea finally struck Dusky gold with our First-of-Year Dookie!


Nearby, I flipped our first Pickerel Frog of the year.

He did not look thrilled.

So, two FOYs isn't a failure. Sure we drove 2 hours (each way) and got soaked but it's worth it. Our last shot was of a Leadback that confused me a lot when I uploaded it... looked a bit like a Dook, too. I put it out there to the internet experts and they all agreed with my first assumption of Leadback.

It's weird to get confused between two super-common species, but there you have it. Nature keeps me on my toes.

The next day, Sunday, was Mother's Day. We'd made plans with Andrea's Mom to go to New Hampshire to visit a Sheep and Wool Fest. It was fun and the weather was very nice. (Of course it was... we couldn't get out into the woods!) On the way home, we managed to make a quick pit-stop at a place in Essex County, MA where we've seen many Garter Snakes in the past. Now, Andrea's Mom is not a snake fan but with us in her life, she is learning to tolerate them. It was with great pride that I found a couple of wee Garters for her to see.

She wouldn't get close but she asked questions and admitted they were pretty. Baby steps.

We saw one other speedy Garter on the short walk.


So, that's how we do it. Roll with the punches. Of course, the upcoming weekend is calling for crappy weather again. We'll see what happens. If you hear of a bald, toothless guy in Boston snapping... it might well be me.