Well, we did go into EEE territory on Saturday, September 27th, hoping to see some more baby turtles. We picked a stupidly buggy place, too, in Middlesex County. We saw a few squished Garters on the access road and, happily, a shoestring making a safe escape into the grass. The bugs weren't so bad that day, as I recall. At any rate, we saw some Painted Turtles up basking before too long.
I'm not going to lie, we skedaddled through the wooded parts pretty quickly. We kept our eyes peeled, hoping to see a neonate Water Snake or two (we had dozens here one year at this time of year) but we kept a brisk pace. We got to a favorite pond spot and it was so full that it flowed into the path. That made it easy to see a couple of resting Green Frogs.
The sun was plenty warm and Painted Turtle Yoga was in full swing.
We never did score any hatchling turtles that day, but there were plenty of adult Painters up and worshiping the sun.
I never tire of these turtles. Each one is a treasure.
We got up to the turtle nesting area and saw some predation and potential successful nests but no turtles. We were surprised to see a Redback in the sunny area, though.
Up at the top of the nesting area, a lovely American Toad fulfilled my wish of "I wish something was posing in this star moss!"
I did not set this picture up. The toad knew what was what.
Last animal in the nesting spot was another out of place critter... a Wood Frog!
That bulb is on the plant, its not a massive blister or partoid gland or anything.
We headed back at that point, moving quickly. We managed to stop for another Painter viewing, though.
We headed out, watching for more baby Garter Snakes in the road, but saw none. That kinda bummed us out, so we decided to stop by another place on the way home. The next stop, also in Middlesex County, is good for frogs and turtles, not to mention Garters and Waters.
Obviously, we were pretty happy when we got there and immediately flipped a brand new baby Water Snake.
I just love the vivid, contrasting saddles on the young 'uns.
I hadn't added a bird to the year's count in a while so I was pleased to get a sneezing Savannah Sparrow (#94).
This place is a stronghold for Northern Leopard Frogs, which are always a delight.
A big Bully was spied through the reeds.
We got to our turn-around spot and flipped a small stone and saw this tiny, napping Nerodia baby. This coil was no larger than a half-dollar.
We saw dozens more Leopards jumping about but couldn't get the camera on them. This guy, however, was massive and jumped right into the path. We thought, from a distance, that it was a big Green Frog, but no... a very large adult Leopard.
We did see a Green for our last animal... a wee one that we would have missed had it not jumped into view.
That's all I got... I don't remember too many more specifics. Not a bad day, though, and our target of baby Water Snakes was hit. A week later, I would catch pneumonia.
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