Well, the weather wasn't too cooperative when we woke up Friday morning but we were off and we were ready so we planned a Norfolk County Tour 2019, focusing on places where we might get a few First-of-Years. On the way to our first place, we made a quick Suffolk County detour to check out the Valley of Nerodia for possible Water Snakes but none were up. We did get a plump Redback, though.
We got to the next spot, a place that has been decimated over the years in the name of human "progress" but there are still a few wild spots. Right near the parking area is a rock pile that has had Milks before.No Milks this day but much to our delight, we saw our FOY DeKay's Snakes!
These guys were icicles and we warmed them up enough to skitter down deep into the rocks where they should have been in the first place.
We walked to the destroyed wetlands just to see how bad it was. It is still pretty bad but the giant wooden planks and much of the heavy machinery is gone so maybe nature will get a chance to recover. Still, it's very sad. This pretty Red-winged Blackbird was singing to cheer us up. (#68, by the way)
Our next stop was the bizarre harbor-side place that is cold, filthy with litter and seemingly brutal, yet has been a great spot for Garters, DeKay's and Greens. We didn't see a Massachusetts Green last year so we hoped we'd flip one, if it wasn't too cold. We braced ourselves for the chilling wind on the cliff near the water, but it wasn't bad. Good enough for this Garter to be out on the crawl.
That defied all odds; it was barely 50° and cloudy. We figured if anything, we'd have to flip a snake.
But no...
This hillside was littered, yes, but also littered with wonderful Garter garland.
While Andrea was photographing those last two, I was down in the wrack line, and saw this guy under a rock... well within the area that salt-water tides in.
Yet another very bizarre thing about this place... salt-water Redbacks?
Since we were having unexpected luck, we decided to look a bit further and take a trail or two. This guy was sequestered in the grass atop the cliff.
We did the ol' "high road, low road" thing to the next area. My low road had this pretty Garter following me. This place's Garters often have a bright white stripe but this guy, interestingly, hasn't much of a stripe at all. More like Morse Code going down the spine.
This guy looks like he just emerged, so I booped him.
It didn't go over too well.
A few more encounters on the way to the car... Garter heaven.
Garters are truly remarkable. I just can't predict them. There wasn't one ray of sun there, but dozens of Garters had no fucks to give. I love that.
Before the rain came in earnest, we wanted to hit one more place in hopes of our first Water Snake of the year. We went to our Spotted Turtle spot in hopes of a stray Nerodia or another Garter or two. But the place had nothing for us. We walked about a mile in, sat and realized that we were gassed, then turned back. This is what Andrea looked like at the half-way point.
In a word, beautiful.
We grabbed bird #69, dude, on the way out... a Downy Woodpecker.
Saturday the 13th was supposed to be the nice day of the weekend but it didn't really seem it on our way into Bristol County. It was cool and cloudy, much like it had been the day before. In fact, it wasn't very nice at all. But we still enjoy a nice nature walk, even if the animals aren't present.
Finally, a mile or so in, Andrea flipped this wee Redback, about 3/4" of Plethodon fury.
Andrea did actual investigative work. Her eyes are pretty good at spotting nest exits and she found a number of over-wintering nest holes. As in, rare successful turtle nests.
One had a dead body in it, sadly. Except on the way back by that hole later, the body was gone. Eaten? Not really dead? We'll never know but we hope it was the latter.
I eventually matched Andrea's Redback with a 3/4" beast of my own.
She also spied a Green Frog, only our second of the year so far.
A flooded path had a noggin in the puddle...
Pretty sure it's our third Green of 2019.
After a pleasant but uneventful few miles, we were back close to the entrance when we finally saw our first American Toad of the year, and it was a big, plump, cow-flop beauty.
Toads make us seriously happy.
Turtles weren't really on the menu for the day since it was so cloudy but we went to check on "Musk Turtle Log" which often has Musks and Painters on it. Man... that's a big Painter up... wait...
Hot damn, we'd never seen a Red-belly at this place before! But they are in the river system so why not? What a nice surprise... first of year.
I'd walked right past this guy... Andrea didn't. A lovely Garter that I licked. (Sorry, no pix.)
Before we left the place, we saw one more Garter, a perfectly gorgeous one peeking out of a pile of wood.
Prettiest Garter of the year so far.
That ended on a decent note. As we drove out, the sun was finally coming out. (Yes, timing is everything.) We went for some Mandarin Buffet and then headed to our next spot. HOWEVER... there was some shit-assed herring run festival going on so it was full of humans and cars and... we just drove past.
We made our way to the next spot, hoping for Musk Turtles or Water Snakes but frankly, it was too late in the day and it was cooling off rapidly. No worries. Our Bristol County Tour wasn't all it could have been but just the fact that we can get out and see anything is great... the season has certainly begun.
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