Starting June with Shells and a Friend. 6-2-2018

Finally, we were going to have the nice days be on the weekend and it would get shitty on Monday. We decided to hit or Plymouth County spot Saturday morning, though we wound up waiting a bit for Spring showers to stop. I decided we would get seven First-of-Years this fine Saturday, all species we've seen here before.

Things started off pretty well in that respect, our first stop got us our FOY Racer!

Being in-the-blue, he was pretty easy to wrangle, though he still nipped a bit.

The little fella took the long way back into hiding.


While still stopped at this spot, we took the trail further than we'd ever taken it before and were rewarded with a lively vernal pool.

Lots of life within these waters... toadpoles and (probably) Wood Frog tadpoles.



Our next stop was a bog area. What's better than a frog in a bog? Many frogs! Here's some Bulls.



And a Green. This was all right there at first peek.


Suddenly, Andrea squee'd; she'd found a hatchling Painted Turtle speeding along the path.

It seems that this lil guy overwintered until June before emerging. He was full of piss and vinegar, too.

We moved him into the bog water, far from the frogs who would have considered him a snack.

This Bullfrog would have, too, but he was in an adjacent bog.


This distant rock had two Painters on it when I lined up the camera. Funny how that happens, isn't it?


We changed our plans for the next stop. My water had already run out so we picked a new route that would take us to a spot with a fountain. It's also the best place to see Plymouth Red-bellied Turtles. We quietly approached the pond where they often bask and were blown away. A distant perch...

and a closer, newly fallen pine tree!


That hidden Red-belly slipped into the water but the other two close ones (and the Painter hangin' tough with them) paid us no mind and did some impressive yoga.


This sight... it was awe inspiring.

You can see the 7th Redbell's noggin in the water between the pine tree halvess. This is what happened when I tried for a solo shot...

As good as my new camera is,  I still can't photograph a turtle that doesn't want to be photographed! Are those his eyes shining back at me?

This Painter had the whole other end of the fallen pine to himself.


We reluctantly left that area to walk a couple of nearby trails. Just as Andrea flipped a salamander and yelled "Redback"!, we heard a familiar voice.


Our friend Steve was there! We hadn't herped with him in quite a while and it was great to see him. He hadn't yet seen the Red-bellies so we went back to watch them again. The yoga poses had gotten ridiculous by then.


The three of us continued to look around this area, scoring another Redback.


We next decided to walk some trails that can be good for Hognoses, Ribbons and Greens, all of which would have been FOYs for Andrea and me. We saw none of those but encountered many lovely Fowler's Toads.





There was still a few hours of daylight left so we all decided to go check out some bogs that Steve had visited in the morning. He'd had an outstanding morning, with Redbellied Snakes, Greens, Spotted Turtles and more. Our destination was where he'd seen the turtles. That particular spot was still busy, even this late in the day. Some turtle noggins pulled in but we got to see some Bullfrogs.



I walked right by this guy but luckily Steve and Andrea saw it... a male Painted Turtle, probably crossing from the drainage ditch to the bog.

A spectacular specimen.

Now that's a clean plastron.


I used my new camera's zoom to good advantage in the bog... these Painter heads were a good 20 feet away but I got 'em!



The clouds had thickened and Steve's weather app alerted him that rain was imminent. Our last sight was this good sized Snapper lounging in the bog.

Was this the turtle responsible for these tracks?


The sprinkles started and we still had to walk past an Osprey nest with a very upset Mom or Dad flying around yelling at us. We did it as briskly as possible. The light rain also made the Grey Tree Frogs start calling but I couldn't find any of them.

It was great to get some hang time with Steve who is a cool and knowledgeable guy and a good friend. We made our farewells and Andrea and I headed home, cutting back through the park. We made one last stop to look for Greys, which we could occasionally hear, but the rain had subsided and they were mostly quiet. But still, FOY Racer, 8 species, hanging with a friend and lots of turtles. That's a good day.