Saturday was going to be super hot again and we were also going to see Andrea's mum so I picked a spot where we could at least see some frogs and turtles before heat and family kicked in. We headed to a spot in Middlesex County where Leopard Frogs are the easiest frogs to see (they're tough pretty much everywhere else) and Blanding's Turtles are a (rare) possibility.
The place was really full of humans and it immediately got on our nerves. Not just mine, but even Andrea was in "want to kill" mode. It took some time before we saw anything and when we did, it was just the noggin of a distant Painted Turtle.
We finally got far enough away from the main path that humans weren't as thick and irritating. It was then that we started to see some animals. Our target frogs were a delight to see. Behold the emerald beauty of the Northern Leopard Frog.
Getting away from the riff-raff, we were finally able to see some basking Painters.
Andrea then saw this massive fatty of a Water Snake. She is ready to pop any moment now.
Not too far from her was another humongous preggo.
This place is going to be literally crawling with baby Water Snakes soon.
Andrea was looking for Wood Frogs, reportedly just above an underground Yellow Jacket nest, while I saw this young Painter noggin.
This young Water Snake looks massive in the picture, but he was only a little over a foot... the branch is of baseball bat thickness. He plopped off just before Andrea got a look at him.
She spied this Bullfrog hiding in the brush.
We'd already had one Garter Snake evade our cameras and we had a subsequent one do it as well, so this crappy shot of the second Garter sighting on the day will have to do.
Yet another massive Nerodia gal slid across the path and we failed to photograph her. I had just said "I wonder how many pounds of Nerodia we've seen today" when Andrea spied this big gal next to the path in front of us.
Filled to the rim with kiddos.
We finally got another glimpse of the pond through the trees and saw some more basking Painters.
Look at how happy this guy looks! Oh, to be a turtle!
Adding to the total Water Snake weight, another massive snakelet machine.
Here are a couple more Leopard beauties.
Improvising a basking spot on a lily-pad is easy when you're not too big.
We were heading back by now but still keeping a close watch. Heading towards the river, Andrea found a young Green Frog enjoying a mudbath.
At the river, we could see some yoga on the far side.
I added another Green Frog to the photoshoot.
Before taking the main trail back to the car, we took a quick look up another side trail. Just as we turned on to it, I heard Andrea yell "TURTLE!" and she broke into a sprint. A turtle trot. A reptile run. She got up to this strolling Painted Turtle in no time.
I heard her say "Hi! You're all mossy!"
That was all of our animals for that sunny Saturday. Also of note, the lotus was in bloom and that's always a beautiful sight. Especially when a beautiful woman is there, too.
The next day, Sunday. was going to be 95-100°. We managed to sleep in a little and got a late start. While we had little chance to see any wildlife, Andrea wanted to swim so we went to a favorite pond in Norfolk County. We got in our 4 miles of hiking but, as expected, we were all but skunked on our search for reptiles and amphibians. This young Garter was our only find.
But this is why we came.
I also added a Camel Cricket (#5) to my sad Grasshopper count on the year.
That's what we saw.
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