So, we had another nice day ahead of us. Where to go? We chose a favorite spot that we hadn't been to yet in 2020. It's a pretty crowded place even without the quarantine-evaders so we'd been a bit reluctant to go. But we got there at about 10 AM and it really wasn't any worse than usual. There was actually nobody up near the first pond yet, so we had some frogs all to ourselves. First up was a Bullfrog.
Followed by a Green Frog.
Followed by another massive Bull with a silver tympanium.
Hiding in plain sight... a good sized Northern Water Snake.
The greenest Green Frog I ever did see.
A stack o' Painters seen through the trees.
A skinny Garter was poking through the leaves looking for a snack. We watched it's shaking-head hunting style for a while.
We got up to a small water-spill area that is usually crowded with humans. It was no worse than usual, but we still figured we wouldn't see anything. But we were wrong... this large Nerodia was just below the bridge, peeking out from between the rocks.
This oft-photographed rock always has a Painter on it, but getting it from this angle revealed a second basker.
This angle also offered me a funny look at that last Water Snake.
OK, here's the traditional shot of that turtle perch. Only one visible.
This path was more crowded than we like, but Andrea was still able to spot little coils of Garter off the path, secretly warming up to start their day.
STOP!
Mammal time!
A Chipmunk.
We got out to the less-traveled part of the park and were more in our element. This gorgeous cinnamon Garter was stretching out next to the path.
Next up, we saw an American Toad wearing a piece of leaf as a hat.
I thought he looked dashing.
We went to a secluded spot to flip some moist logs and hopefully find our first 4-Toed Salamander on the year. Lo and behold... WE DID!
In a case of high-road/ low-road, I took the high and was rewarded with a secret Painter.
Hey, look! Another cute American Toad.
Up in a grassy, open area that we consider our half-way point, Andrea made an unexpected (but somehow typical for her) discovery... an over-wintered Painter hatchling trucking through the grass.
While carrying that guy towards the water, she saw another one! The second guy wasn't as active and has a bulging eye. He may make it, he may not but we took him along to give him a better shot.
We got them to a shallow, weedy edge of the pond and put them down. #2 was very tentative, but #1 barreled right in.
We enjoyed watching his acclimate to his new environment. His swimming needs work!
We took a pond-side break to eat pretzels and let some accidentally fall into the pond where they were attacked by voracious Punkin'seeds.
Andrea finally flipped us a Redback!
We got to the part of the pond where many distant Painter perches are visible. My zoom-lens went into overdrive.
I got a pretty good picture of a very patient Common Yellowthroat.
By this time, we had made a huge loop and were back by the water-spill. An incredibly cute Water Snake skidded into the water and a Garter showed itself, too.
Nearing the front, I photographed what I thought was an Oriole but it turned out to be the 188th species of bird I've ever photographed... an American Redstart, #40 on the year.
Another secret Garter. Humans 10 feet away had absolutely no idea he was there.
Our last critter... we ended as we had started. Mr. Bullfrog is his name.
It looks like not everybody and their whole disease-carrying family are going as crazy as they were last month. There's still far too many folks out there for my liking but we're getting good at avoiding their stupidity and trash throwing, habitat destroying ways. Hopefully, everyone will decide nature sucks after all and go back to their video games.
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