Poke in Nose, Day One. 5-24-2019

Andrea planned a trip for my birthday weekend to visit the Poconos where we'd meet up with a few friends and do some reptile and amphibian searching. She rented a house that was pretty much in the middle of many of the places we wanted to poke around. The fauna in Pennsylvania isn't drastically different from what we have up here in Massachusetts, but there is a lot more of it present.

We got a very early start on that Friday morning. We'd both taken the day off and hit the road well before 7 AM. We stopped for gas in Tolland County, Connecticut and I flipped a Ringneck at the gas station.

Unfortunately, I ripped the eczema on the tip of my finger off flipping this guy and it would affect me the rest of the weekend. Eh, c'est la vie.

We had a pretty easy drive into PA, despite it being Labor Day weekend. Armed with good music and lots of Diet Coke, we made it there in a bout 5 1/2 hours. Once in the state, we took a few pull-overs to look around. The first one got us another Ringer.

It should be noted that we stopped twice in New York to attempt a NY herp but failed.

The next stop had some swampy, puddley areas which landed us a couple of Green Frogs.



Across the street from the Green Frog spot, this teeny Ringneck was flipped, just as a light rain started.


After driving past it a couple of times, we finally got to our house for the weekend. One of the big draws for us was a creek running through the back and plenty of woods, as well. While Andrea was looking for the key, I wasted no time and found a Redback next to the garage.


We poked around out back for a while (I lost a Two-lined in the creek) while we waited for our friend Dave. He works nearby and he wanted to take us to a potential snake spot for our first outing of the weekend.

Dave got there and took us hiking up to a magnificent spot. While Andrea is a little uncomfortable with precarious heights, we still enjoyed the vista.


Dave found us a Rat Snake deep within a crevice but my camera had no chance to capture it. There was a couple of kids up there at the time and they might have scared off a few snakes (which they didn't even know were up there). But persistence paid off and we saw a Milk crawling through a crack.

I honestly wasn't sure it was a Milk at first, it was so dark, unlike our very red ones up here. Juvie Rat? But no, it became pretty obvious. Especially when he poked his little noggin out. We could not extricate it to show Andrea, who would not go down to the edge where he was.

Right in the same spot, Dave looked up and saw his favorite... a Timber Rattlesnake.

Technically, these are our First-of-Year for both species but since Andrea couldn't get down there to see them, later specimens will have to count.

The walk back to Dave's car produced a couple more Ringnecks.


Ringers are wonderfully common in PA, a fact that makes me very happy when I'm in the state.

We got back to the house and our friend Kyle and his wife Kris had arrived by this time and were exploring the back. I hadn't seen Kyle in many years and had never met Kris before, but we hit it off and were like long-time pals. They were going to stay at the house with us that night. Dave had to depart but the rest of us went into the back to look for critters. And found some. Here's a couple of Redbacks.


This one has an interesting head pattern.


Andrea flipped an unexpected treasure...a small Spotted Salamander. There is a pool about 50 yards from the house, evidently it is used by some Spotteds.

Really vivid spots for such a wee one.

The four of us relaxed for a while talking and sharing stories. Kyle was telling us about a nearby place but couldn't remember where the trailhead was. We all piled into his car to drive by and look. We found it. Well, since we were out and about, why not look around the turn-around spot down the street? It proved to be pretty good, too.

We started with a nice stripe-less Garter.


I next saw a Redbellied Snake crawling through the grass... our FOY!


Kyle'd had a little bit of Garter luck, but I was too slow to get to him for pics. But I managed to flip another Redbell up on a hill, the last of the weekend, unfortunately. What a gorgeous color.


Getting back down to meet the others, I saw that Kyle had flipped some large Ringnecks. There was three, but only two remained. 15 and 16". These big gals also both had the Southern-style half-moons on their bellies. Very cool snakes.


I'm not gonna lie... I was toast by this time, after the drive, the hike with Dave and the excitement. We didn't last too long that night... just long enough to pick a lot of ticks off and shower. We went to bed with the window cracked open and Peepers calling from the nearby pool. I couldn't have been more content.

Can Lightning Strike Twice? 5-19-2019

No, not really.

We'd originally planned to head to Bristol County to check on a few places to look for Musk Turtles but a friend said one of the places (that has become overly human-friendly in the past two years) has become even worse so we just said screw it... let's go to Plymouth. It was in the low 60s and cloudy and we knew not what we'd see, but we hoped for some Fowler's Toads. Though we were tired, we pushed on and got about 6 miles of hiking in.

We got there in the late morning and started flipping debris and logs. We got a few Redbacks for our efforts.



We checked out "our" vernal pool, which was still huge and flooding the man-children's ATV path. Undeterred, many tiny tadpoles were swimming about. Fowler's? Maybe.


This small frog (Bull? So hard to tell) was the only resident with legs that we saw.


The next stop was the bogs. Instant gratification... this plump Bullfrog greeted us.


A couple more Bullies...



I am shit an getting shots of birds in flight but this one was hovering a bit so I got it. I couldn't ID what kind of hawk it was when I got home but my pal Bob said it's a juvenile Bald Eagle. Nice! #79.


This frog wants badly to be a Green. Sort of a dorsolateral ridge. Looks like a Bull to me, though. Maybe that's a flap of fat. I have some, too.


Our next stop was a trail where you practically have to kick the toads out of your way. Guess what. No toads. You can't say we didn't work hard for them, but we wound up with zero toads. This trail got us a short stack of Painters, though.


And a bright, small Redback.


Right around here, we needed to get some sustenance so we went outside the park and got drinks and ice-cream. On the way back, I pulled up to some trash and pulled this beautiful Ringneck out of a tarp.

Andrea stayed in the car, finishing her ice cream. I delivered the snake to her to view.

Some more bogs on the way back to the park... a true, bonafide Green.


This Bullfrog was in the same bit o' bog.


Back to the park we were low on energy but decided to check out the main turtle spot because the sun had forced its way out. We were rewarded with a magnificent sight... Red-bellies a'plenty.


The far log had two Painters followed by four Redbells.


This guy we called Platter... that's a huge turtle. Gorgeous.


This teeny Greeny was in the plants at the pond's edge.


One more Redback for the road...


This distant Painted chorus line is pretty hilarious and amazing... check out the one guy about 15 feet higher than the others!


So, that was our second day in a row out and about. We didn't kill it but we did OK and got our steps in together, all while seeing animals. I'm not gonna kick about that.

Sun + Turtles = Good. May 18th, 2019

OK, temps in the 70s and sun... on a weekend!!! We had to plan carefully. So we went to a turtley place in hopes of seeing lots of turtles. We did.

We got there mid-morning and hit the shady forest trail first, thinking that if Hogs and Boxes are in this place, that's where they'd be. But it was dank and buggy and we decided to not trophy-herp, just get on with the program. So we hurried through and upon getting back out to the sun, Andrea yelled, "snake"!

Sure enough, a large female Garter on a mission was making her way across the path. We didn't get much time for a photo, much less a measurement but she must have been 30 " or so.

Andrea usually has the good hatchling eyes but I actually scored one this time... a quarter sized Painter that had just made it past the path.



Bogs are for frogs, like this pretty Green Frog. We heard a lot of Greens calling all day, sometimes in amazing quantities, but this is the only photo we got.


The bogs had frogs but they also held turtles... lots of turtles. Here's the first of many adult Painters.


The bogs were flooded and started to remind me of the Everglades.


While walking the paths around the bogs, Andrea saw a small Spotted Turtle and some Redbellied Cooters, both first timers for us here. But the camera didn't see them. Laid back Painted Turtles were easy enough, though.


We then hit a rich Bullfrog vein...




But the animal of the day was indisputably the Painted Turtle. We saw hundreds of them and it never got boring.








This little guy is giving you a back-handed salute.




I mean come on...

Sun Turtles, indeed!

We finally broke it up with our first Snapper of the day.


Of the hundreds of Painted Turtles we saw this day, it would be difficult to find a prettier one than the big guy here.


Here is some Tree Swallow hanky-panky.


I was about to put a moratorium on Painters unless we saw some spectacular sights. So here are more Painters.


I can't resist the little ones...


Almost to our turn-around point, I thought I heard a bird foraging in the brush at the edge of the pond. I realized what it was a bit too late and hemipene-blocked this poor Water Snake.

His startled BBW mate had slunk into the water, being all shy and demure.

I suspect she came back for some more lovin' after we left.

He's a solo Nerodia, hiding his noggin in the shade.


Moratorium or not, I mean come on... they were on everything, even this fallen frame.


We missed another Redbelly but this posing Spotted Turtle scratched one of out missed-it itches.


I could see a turtle foraging around just at the water's edge. At first it looked Musky, then I saw it was a small Snapper. I had decided to get a double soaker and go for it.

What a pissed-off beauty!

This stub-tailed cutie has a super pretty belly.

We'd definitely broken the Nerodia seal.

Andrea found a small Painter up on the path, heading to the pond. I thought his dramatic journey should be filmed!

He made it.


The next pair of mating Water Snakes paid me no never-mind. They were *ahem*... otherwise engaged.


This lovely Painter advised us that it was time to turn back again.


I kept an eye on the bog-side of the trail going back. As expected, it was full of turtles.


Not all Painters, either... as is proven by this Spotted.


It wasn't just Chelonian beauty out there, either.


So much for my moratorium on Painted Turtles. They're just so beautiful!


This good-sized Water Snake was hiding her noggin.

But I found it.


The next one made no effort to hide her head... it was periscoping right up.


My first Yellow Warbler (#78) in a few years.


OK... last Painter shot, I promise. But jeez... look at all those noggins!


Walking up the path back towards the car, I saw a turtle on the edge of the path. It turned out to be another young Snapper, standing tall to look threatening.

Notice that this tough guy is missing an eye.

One more Spotted...


Almost back to the parking lot, we stopped to listen to Green Frog calls, and then a weird bird called. And another. Andrea said, "those sound like Grays"... and sure enough, she was right. We stepped into the woods to poke around but of course they stopped. Even being right in the vicinity, it would be impossible to see a Gray Tree Frog on the bark of trees. Then, by a small miracle, we saw one in the crook of a tree. First of year...


That was a great end to a very successful hike. We both got sunburned to a crisp but it's all worth it. Finally, some sun and fun and some animal porn. We'll get the Red-bells next time.