Buggin' Out! 7-25-2020

Once again, it was going to be too hot to have a very productive animal hike, but we set the alarm for 5 AM and hit the road to Plymouth County in short order. Grabbing some "breakfast" on the way, we managed to get to our destination by 6:30 AM, while it was still in the mid-70s.

While driving through the park, I stay very alert in case anything is warming up on the asphalt. All of a sudden, we saw what looked like an ottoman walking down the side of the road. When we got closer, we saw what it was...


Why this Snapper was walking down the side of the road on a hot Saturday morning is beyond me, but we took a few shots, then I moved her into the brush, where she was very angry for having her morning constitutional interrupted.

As far as we were  concerned, that already justified getting up so early and driving roughly 50 miles. That's good because on our first stop there, our only real snake-flipping spot, we didn't see anything to photograph. But we got our heart-rate up and prepared for the next spot, the bog. The bog is always good for frogs and while we heard Bulls and Greens, we only saw Bulls. Here are some of them...




Along the path, I photographed this Robber Fly.


I missed a shot of a wee lily-pad-basking Painter, who slipped into the drink while I fumbled with my camera, but here are some more handsome Bullfrogs.




The Eagle-Eye Award goes to Andrea for spotting this tiny Fowler's.


She also spotted this Ribbon Snake on the side of the path who had just had some lunch.


The heat was on by the time we hit our third stop in the park. This trail has been a good snake walk in the past, with Ribbons, Garters, Hognoses and even a Green in the past. It was shaded, so our chances were pretty good, though (SPOILER ALERT!), we didn't see any. We saw many beautiful Fowler's Toads, however. Look- there's one now!


A few Painted Turtles were up on branches getting some sun. When it gets this hot, sometimes they forego the bask, but these sun worshipers were up for a bit.




One way to see some Fowler's was to flip stones! They were buried into the cool soil under stones, beating the heat.


One way to enjoy yourself when the reptiles and amphibians aren't plentiful is to turn your attention to other wildlife that is present. This Northeastern Pine Sawyer is a big, beautiful and extremely cool bug. The antennae were amazingly long.


Before heading home (we'd been hiking for about 4 1/2 hours by now), we decided to look in to see if the reliable turtle area had any action (or rather, inaction). It was probably too hot for anyone to be up basking, but you never know. Not up, but this Plymouth Redbelly was swimming around.

That sunfish swimming toward him in the photo eventually ran right into him, causing a funny scramble from both animals.

Back to bugs... this Cicada Killer posed nicely for me.


Walking back past the turtle spot, our red bellied pal had another Cooter by his side.


Now, it was our time to cool off so we went to the edge of a secluded pond and dipped ourselves into the cool, sparkling water.


I just sat on the edge, cooling my tootsies.


Sitting there, I had a wonderful nature show playing out before me. This Variable Dancer kept landing on a piece of wood and dancing for me.


I was also sharing the water with dozens of tiny Water Striders.


Thus ended a lovely day and a happy and successful month of July for us. As I write this post on July 31st, I can report that for the month, we had 23 species of reptile and amphibian and I added 12 birds to my 2020 count. For a month that sometimes gets too hot for much (and some of these July days have been pure blast-furnace), that's not too bad. Considering we haven't been outside the state and really not much more than an hour or so from home, I have no complaints.