A Visit from the Son We Never Wanted. 8-24-2019

Matt, the son we never wanted, was going to be in town for a short stint and wanted to take a peek nearby to see if any baby Copperheads had come plopping out of their Mom's cloaca yet. Since he was a drunken mess the last time we saw him (at Bob's wedding), we wanted to meet up so we could renew our faith in him. We wanted to say moist a lot, too. It was still in the 60s and not expected to get much past 80° this day.

He got there before us and was deep into the hike by the time we arrived. We hurried along the trail to get to him. Andrea wouldn't let me peek under logs, not because she was worried about my healing arm, but because it would waste time. Luckily, despite moving quickly, we saw this Racer laying off trail warming up for the day.

Look at that gorgeous iridescence. Our first Massachusetts Racer this year. Matt came up just as it moved on.

Since he was now with us, Andrea lifted her flipping ban and found herself a small Redback.

The cooler temps were working to our advantage.

Our MO for looking for Copper babies was simple... scour the hills around the known den sites figuring Mom wouldn't be too much of a douchebag and drop them off super far from there. While we didn't score any snakes, we were surprised to see this small (last year's model?), chonky Spotted Salamander under a rock.


This Mantis that Matt saw was very interested in a nearby cricket.


We did some poking around some rocky hills with precarious footing. Not wanting to break any more limbs, I took respite at the bottom and waited. Andrea soon came to join me.

We Bob'd it for a while, which is to say we rested while the kid looked around.

I stayed low and worked my way back to the trail. I was sure some shoestring Garters or Coppers or Racers would be seen, but we never saw any. I did, however, see two more unexpected Spotteds.



We all got back together to head back. Andrea, then Matt, found Peepers. Two totally different designs on these guys.



Our last animal there was a recent metamorph Spotted that Matt found.


We left and got some Vietnamese food and smoothies and talked for a while. Matt had other plans so we decided to hike a bit more after lunch. We headed further in to Norfolk County to walk around a reservoir. We had turtles on our minds.

It didn't take long for us to see some Painted Turtles there. Man, I love these animals.




Andrea lifted a massive rock and managed to hold it up while I fumbled with my camera. It was worth it to get a shot of this young Pickerel.


I saw a distant Painter up basking so I extended my zoom and got this photo...

Hey, that's no Painter... that's a Snapper!

Here's another Peeper with yet another design.


There was some kind of avian meeting going on out there...


A Painter deep into a shed.

Looks like a bowl of potato chips.

A small, dusty toad. They're so hard to tell when they're this size and this particular place always has me guessing. I'm going with American, based solely on very large partoid glands.


Likewise, with only a glimpse of this frog, how do I properly ID it? I'm going with Bull, anyway. So there. Eat me.


Our last sight was this very old Musk who was up for a bask.


Now that's a-what I'm-a talkin' about.

And that was our day. We got in over 7 miles, got to see our son (even though we never wanted him) and saw 10 species on an August afternoon. Can't argue with that. I did get a 'skeeter bite at the reservoir, but as I haven't yet dropped dead or exhibited any (more than usual) signs of brain damage, I'm going to guess I didn't contract EEE yet.

Keeping Ourselves Occupied. August 15th, 17th and 18th.

Between broken bones, EEE (Eastern equine encephalitis) warnings in counties where we enjoy hiking and oppressive heat, this has been quite a crappy Summer. We have, however, made a few attempts at animal seeking and here they are.

Thursday, August 15th. My workplace closed early and we had our company Summer party at my boss's house in Middlesex County. His home is right on a river and we (and my co-worker Ryan) have had plenty of good sightings there in the past. Luckily, Andrea got the day off and came with me.

I could see from where I parked that Ryan, who had beat me there, already had something in hand but I wanted to go in order, so I checked my boss's water urns, where he said he has seen up to four Green Frogs . Sure enough, there were four Green Frogs across the three urns, all enjoying a predator-free soak.




We met up with Ryan and he'd made quite a spectacular find. This Water Snake had a barb protruding from it. He had carefully clipped it off. Hopefully, the snake will make a complete recovery.


He shared this photo of the obstruction... it appears to be a Fork-tail Catfish's barb.

                                                                  Photo by Ryan Gilmore

Another Green Frog, this one being daring, down in the grass.


About a half hour after releasing it, the recovering Water Snake was down in the water, which is probably a pretty good sign.


Andrea spied this resting Garter coiled up in a bush.


We hadn't seen any turtles because it was pretty hot out. But then, a distant shot down-river showed me that a Painter was up way out there.


We didn't get photos of any other animals, but we saw another Garter on the move and a small frog, perhaps a Pickerel. An unidentified mammal scooted by in the distance, too. On the way home, we pulled out of traffic for a bit to look at a pond where we'd seen Snappers before. No turtles, but a River Otter was swimming around, popping up every now and then, and offering us terrible photo-ops. This is the best I could do.

I think that's the first wild one we've ever seen. They are great fun to watch.

On Saturday (the 17th) morning, we got up early and headed to Essex County, where no EEE reports have yet occurred. We'd been wanting to hit this particular pond anyway. And right off the bat, we encountered a large Pickerel who was hiding under a fallen sign.


Then Andrea spotted this tiny Wood Frog.


The other end of the Pickerel size scale... this guy is this-year's-model.


On the way there, Andrea had mentioned how she wanted to see a Peeper since it had been quite a while. It's only fitting that she spotted our next animal... a Peeper!


Finally next to the water, Andrea found the Nerodia hot spot. These two, plus a speedy, camera-shy fella were all near each other.


Note the spider in the upper left corner of the second photo.

A small American Toad was hopping out of the way of our feet. Smart 'phib'!


We hit the duck-weed covered smaller pond and really had to work to see any animals. This Bullfrog would have been hard to see anyway, even without the coating of duck-weed.


A couple of Painted Turtle noggins were visible.



"Hey, since my arm is still healing, why don't I go stand on an uneven surface and flip rocks? After all, I am an idiot!"

Thanks for snapping the shot, Andrea. Photographic proof that I'm a moron.

Finally, at the third water area, we got the answer to our much-asked question... "where all da Garter Snakes at?" A wee coil.


This magnificent Water Snake looked so darn comfy. She be thick.


Turning back, we got to see this shore from a different perspective than on the way in, so we got a look at this big Garter we'd missed before.


Passing back by the duck-weed pond showed us a few things that had come up to grab some sun since we'd passed by earlier. Two Painted Turtles were looking like Swamp Things.


This gigantic Nerodia really impressed us. Easily 3 feet long and fat as my arm. This has been a good baby Water Snake spot in the past and I expect it will be again shortly.


We went up to the power-line cut to look around. It was plenty hot but we still had some decent luck. A couple of Garters were getting a tan.


Check out exactly where that first one was... I'd love to have seen him get up there!


I did see a brand-new shoestring Garter up there but he was too quick for my camera. This dusty American Toad was not.


The gnats were pretty annoying all day so we might have called it quits a bit sooner than we normally would have. But we'd seen plenty of animals and eaten a few handfuls of blackberries, so it's all good. Back by the Water Snake hot-spot, more Nerodia scattered as we passed but we have evidence of one that was a bit slower.


Here's a beautiful Monarch caterpillar.


We finished the hike with one more gorgeous Garter on the way to the car. We were on the way to our car. Not the snake. Not sure where he was headed. Maybe to his own car. No, I doubt it. Maybe, though.

We got ice cream on the way back home.

The next day (Sunday, the 18th), we were meeting Andrea's niece and her daughter to go to a pond they enjoy. We got there a bit early, so...

Up at a power-line cut, Andrea spotted this new shoestring Garter.


Before I could ask "how the hell did you even see that?", I saw another making its way through the grass.

Mom had recently dumped a load of babies here. This is a favorite time of year!

After meeting up with the girls, we walked along, taking a more secluded path closer to the water. It paid off with a quick sighting of a swimming Painted who wouldn't give me a second chance for a photo.

This one will have to do.

We waded for a while and talked and enjoyed each other's company. Then we started back and Andrea saw this perfect Garter stretched out about 7 feet from the path.


Not quite ready to leave, we headed back up to the shoestring power-line cut. There was a woman there photographing a butterfly, a Common Buckeye, and I thought it worthy of a photo as well.


We saw no more tiny snakes up there but Andrea miraculously saw this wee Wood Frog.


Thus ended our nature time for the week. We managed to see animals and see friends and family. I consider it a success.