Our fourth day in a row of getting outside was thwarted by cool rain. We made plans to spend this Monday off inside, cleaning and watching movies. At one point, I had to go get groceries and while I was out, I noticed it was pretty darn nice out. Upon returning home, we decided to hit the local spot for shits and giggles and to avoid housework. Andrea's weather ap said we had about a half hour before the rain returned.
We got there and headed straight to some hot spots. Robles' Den had two Garters speeding towards a hole when we approached. We only got a shot of one of them.
Had we startled them or were they just smarter than us and heading for cover?
A perfect Redback was next.
As expected, the rain started up again. I only had to worry about my camera, so we pressed on. Besides, we could hear Toads calling all around. The water's edge was toad-free but this small Green Frog watched as we passed.
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OK, well, it started pissing down and even I'm not that stupid with my camera, so we headed back. We'd seen 3 bonus animals on a day we hadn't planned on going out so we couldn't complain. Then as we were high-tailing it back to the car, Andrea noticed this Water Snake that I'd trotted right past.
So, 4 species in about a half hour on a surprise outing. I'll take it!
GOOD FRIDAY. April 19th, 2019.
Andrea encountered the first Urban Garter of 2019 while walking to the train station to go to work. SCORE!
She had climbed up and away from the garbage to bask.
EASTER SUNDAY. April 21st, 2019.
A day with Andrea's mum... a tasty lunch... a call from band mates saying practice had been cancelled. We headed home at the expected time but I grabbed my camera instead of my guitar and we hit the local spot for the few remaining moments of daylight. Much to our delight, our first sighting was a Blue-spotted Salamander, our first at this spot this year.
We went to many of the usual snake spots but nobody was up anymore. We stood on a small wooden bridge and looked at this vista for quite a while...
In addition to the still beauty, Snapper noggins could be seen popping up here and there. (There is actually one just to the right of the curved log in the above shot.)
I heard a little splish-splash near a tree root and finally saw this (probable) Green Frog's noggin. (In person, I thought it was a Bull, now I think Green.)
No mistaking the Green Frogginess of this next anuran.
Again, we could hear Toads all over the place but just couldn't see any. Sneaking up to the water's edge did get us a few peeks at animals, though. (In person, I thought this was a Green, now I think Bull.)
We were losing our light rapidly but I just couldn't stop peeking for toads. This ride 'em cowboy Green made me chuckle.
Another ride 'em cowboy a bit further out gave me quite the surprise when I looked at the camera... finally, we'd found an American Toad!
We're all out of holidays until Cinco de mayo. Hopefully, we'll have more animals to report long before then.
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