Last Day of June, 1st Day of Vacation. 6-30-2018

We finally made it to our well-earned vacation... nine days away from work and all of it together. Of course, this being Summer, the forecast for pretty much the whole week is temps in the mid-90s, so our nature plans are to get out of the house early and hope to see things before it heats up too much.

For Saturday, June 30th, our first day's  journey would be to hit the State Forest in Plymouth County. My band had to play that night so we wanted to get there, do our usual 6 miles or so, then get back in time for me to nap. The joys of being old but active. We got to the forest before 8 AM and Painted Turtles were already up on some mud flats in a pond.

I shot this from the car up on the road.

Our usual first spot produced a trio of Fowler's Toads who were already preparing for the hot day under a cool piece of carpet.


Huggy toy! ^

The nearby vernal pond that we'd discovered on our last visit was still teeming with amphibian life, though many changes have been happening. Salamander larvae and tadpoles sprouting legs have been a few of the changes. I believe we have Spotted Salamander larvae here:



This one might be either an Eastern Newt or a Blue-spotted. I really do not know. At any rate, this particular species was swimming oddly, spinning and doing flips and stuff.


This tadpole has some lovely green legs sprouting. Grey Tree?

I'm still working on the IDs of these larval 'phibs. Any help is thoroughly appreciated.

We headed back to the car, under the watchful eye of a Red Squirrel.


Our next stop was a bog. It is usually good for plenty of frogs and the occasional Painted Turtle or Ribbon Snake or a Hognose. The heat was already on so we only saw animals that know how to live... Bullfrogs. Here are four beautiful specimens.




As has been the norm for this year, we heard quite a few Greens calling but never laid eyes on one.

The bogs here are working cranberry bogs and once a year, they bring boxes of bees in to pollinate things. Having been caught in a storm of them years ago, we always walk by the bee-stacks with some trepidation. Rather than pass by the potential disaster on the way out, we tried a new path that worked out just fine and we even found a couple of Fire-pit Fowler's as a nice bonus.


Why do toads seem to love fire-pits so much? I hope they jump ship by the time it gets lit again!

We took a short break at pond-side. Andrea discovered that it is tiny toad season. I offered my bottle top for size reference. It pooped in it.


One more Bully before moving on to the next spot...


It was starting to get pretty hot even though it was still well before noon. Our next spot was nicely shaded, though, so it was comfortable. Tiny toads (that look to be Fowler's) were everywhere. We had to watch our steps.


Walking up one path, we saw a large Garter about 10 feet into the woods.

She was a beast and even though we had some decent photos of her, we really wanted to measure her. So, we caught her, she bit the shit out of me and musked, but we got her approximate length measured...

31 inches of pissed off Garter gal.

We hoped we hadn't bothered her too much. We put her down and she sped back into the woods. There was a commotion a few feet in front of her and a toad started hopping quickly away. She chased it. It hopped across the path, she pursued at full speed...


Now, I hate posting pictures like this but she made an impressive catch.

The toad blew himself up to make it more difficult. We went on with our hike, not knowing if it got away or got eaten. Well, on the way back by about 10 minutes later, she told us the story.


Our last stop at this place was where we could refill our water and see some turtles. Unfortunately, we got to the turtle spot right after a loud family had just walked by so there were no turtles up. We waited patiently and a Painter finally climbed back up to bask.


A Red-belly was sticking to the water in case any more brats came by.


We went to a different part of the pond and enjoyed a breeze while we watched fish. It's funny... in a tank, you see the fish circling back and forth and think they must be terribly bored. Well, even in a large pond, we were watching the same fish doing laps, albeit laps of about 30 feet. There were Sunfish, Perch (not pictured) and Bass (thanks, Mike Z!).



After a chat with the ranger who works there (a good dude) we went back to the turtle spot and were rewarded with a couple more Painters catching rays.



Andrea checked for wee ones at the edge.


And there in the distance, doing some serious yoga, a Red-belly had emerged from the drink to be fabulous, at least until sugared-up kids come by again.


And that is how we spent the first day of vacation. We got back home in time for me to nap and I survived the gig that night.

Garters on the Edge of Pond. 6-24-2018

Warm but overcast. Sounds like a winning snake day. We headed over to an Essex County pond that we'd been meaning to get to this year. Arriving late in the morning, we hit the trails to see how the place survived the Winter.
Since it was fairly humid, we weren't surprised to see that it was a bit moist under most of the logs. We hoped for salamanders. Heading back to a log well off the path, I saw a Garter slither under my target. I flipped it for this photo, then returned it to position.

That puppydog has one helluva meal in it!

We did see some salamanders. One log had this Leadback under it.

While photographing this guy, a Redback jetted right through the frame and hid under a leaf. He peeked out but I couldn't get the shot. He was too cagey to let me get a decent photo at all.

I walked toward the main pond (a reservoir) and didn't notice the basking log there until it was too late. A dozen Painters plopped into the drink, leaving me with only a couple of noggin shots.


I only got those shots by being patient. This Sunfish was right under me, waiting for the turtles to get back to the log. "My water, reptiles!"


One section of this hike is an asphalt road that goes between the reservoir and a small pond for about 50 yards. It has always been pretty reliable for a snake or two but it was quickly evident that this day was going to be extraordinary. Right away, we started seeing Garters basking, Garters slipping into the brush, Garters poking around for food... all on the reservoir side. Here are a few. Note that many of them are in the blue.



Some were mere glimpses between the greenery.


This Water Snake broke up the Garterama for a moment.


This large gal was poking around...

When she slid off, she went right over this last-year's-model shoestring.


I couldn't resist and reached into a bush to pick one up. I got musked and he wouldn't cooperate, anyway. Serves me right.


That was all on the reservoir side. There were dozens of Garters. Some kids came by to fish and we asked if they liked snakes. Luckily, they said yes. We looked to the pond side to see if there was any action over there. There was.


Another half-dozen over there.

Andrea scored with a Pickerel sighting!


On we went, turning on the path to pass by another pond, one that is usually very green with duckweed. We could hear the Heron rookery from far away. We weren't surprised to see a lot of activity in the distant nests.

It sounded like a horror movie, with shrieks, grunts and groans.

Along that pond's edge, we saw this large Nerodia sunning, almost out of sight. Check out the scar on this resilient gal!


This pond can be pretty good for turtles but since it was overcast, we hadn't seen any yet. But as the sun started to try poking through the clouds, a few duckweed-covered Painters started to rise.




A little bit further on, we found ourselves on a different shore of the reservoir. This spectacular Pickerel tried to hide in the ground cover, but I got 'im!


While the other shore was filled with Garters, this one was Water Snake heavy. This first one almost looks like an Eastern King!

Lampropeltis getula sipedon.

This gal was well over three feet.


Even the 6-dotted Fishing Spiders were massive on this shore.


Heading back, Andrea startled this Pickerel out into the open.


Passing by the duckweed pond again, we noticed that the sun had brought a lot of Painted Turtles out.



"Hey, Mack... spare a buck for a shave?"


Next up for us was a stroll up through the powerline cut. In the past, we have seen dozens of Garters up there. It had become pretty hot now that the sun was shining so we weren't surprised to not be seeing snakes. Looks like we missed one here...


We finally flipped a snoozing stubby Garter.


Eventually, it was time to head home. We still had to pass the Garterama spot, though. As we approached, we saw that the two fishing kids were still at it and there was a man and his son also fishing at that spot. Surely no snakes would still be there. Well, except for this Nerodia...


In truth, Garters were still all over the place, only a few steps away from the humans. We stayed there watching them for a while, maybe a dozen or so; some basking, some crawling, some digesting.


This female was massive. We probably should have measured her.


Andrea got a shot of this speedster before he took off.


I was toast by now. We were almost to the end (the beginning, really) when we looked down a path that we hadn't taken earlier. Should we? Why not? Once on the path, this Song Sparrow (well, that's what Bob tells me every bird that I can't quite ID is) was singing up a storm so I snapped a shot.

Andrea, who seems to be retaining our bird CDs better than I, said "its saying 'teacher, teacher, teacher... I think its an Oven Bird." Sure enough, she was right, making this #76 on the year and, since I have never photographed this species before, Lifer #172.

We saw one more Garter on that path, a super clean, stunning one that posed nicely for us (with a little coaxing).


Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.