It was a little windy still, but the sun was burning bright. We might have been there a little early as we saw no Garters right away and this place is filthy with them, which is wonderful. But while we were there, we started to see some morning movement. This guy was hidden in the brush.
Many Garters here have this vivid white stripe... gorgeous.
I was standing about 4 feet from a large rock when I noticed this guy coming out.
But that was right on a sunny outcropping. Most places were still in the shade, thus much cooler. It should be noted that Andrea saw a pointy green thing sticking out from a hole in a rock. Blade of grass or Green Snake tail? She poked it and it pulled in. Crap. But at least it's more evidence than the skin from last year, the only sign we saw of a Green in Massachusetts in all of 2019.
So, we moved on. This guy was flipped in the middle of a field. Still asleep in my hand.
Up in a sunny spot, this guy was crawling along.
Here's his face.
But most of the Garters were still sleeping under rocks. Here's what they looked like upon flipping:
It should be noted for all of the holier-than-thou fuck-knobs out there that none of these snakes were handled or bothered in any way and the logs were replaced carefully without even waking the animals. So fuck off.
Andrea and I have a thing called "looking for hamburgers"... it's when a snake is visible between rocks, like the meat sticking out from the buns. This is sort of a hamburger, with bonus spider fries.
So that was our morning hike. Not too bad. It's a shame we couldn't photograph a Green but we're not trophy herpers... we're pleased with the Garteriffic experience. We made our way over to Andrea's mum's house and visited (observing social distancing). Her mum decided to not join us on a visit to Andrea's Dad's grave (she would go Monday), so we went over to pay our respects to the great man on our own.
His grave is (deservedly) in a lush, beautiful spot in the cemetery. He loved birds and there were many flitting all around. There is also a pond not to far from his site. The pond usually has turtles in it and, since the sun had come out for reals, we walked around it. OK, now how did that Painted Turtle on the right get up there???
He looks pretty pleased with himself.
These two were enjoying the sun. In fact, that yoga guy on the left seems to be enjoying it more than anyone else in the world!
Come on!
We often see Bullfrogs there as well and look! There's one now. He's coming to get you Barbara!
This Red-tail was munching on a bunny above our heads.
I'm glad I didn't see the initial grab and kill.
Lastly, we again ended our day as we had started it... we simultaneously found Garters. Mine was larger but hers was far feistier.
Bless these tenacious, adaptive, successful and beautiful species. They make even a somber day joyous.
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