Ending November. The 26th through the 29th.

First up... our Thanksgiving was fine. We spent it together. We did make a side trip to Andrea's mum's house to scoop her catbox and take out her garbage. While there, we saw a beautiful Leadback under the trashcan.

Black Friday... November 27th... Since our previous birding trip went awry (we'd looked at snakes instead) we went to the water to look for some sea-birds this time. I added 5 species on to my 2020 list, getting it to the 75 I'd hoped to reach. Here they are.

#71 Red-throated Loon.

#72 Common Eider, a female and a immature male. The Andrea and me of Eiders.

#73 Common Goldeneye.

#74 Ruddy Turnstones.

And #75, Red-breasted Merganser.

So, I'm pleased to have hit 75 with no trips out of this state.

We spent a lot of time watching little brown rats (Norway Rats- Rattus norvegicus) scurrying around the jetty looking for snacks. They were very quick and hard to get a photo of. But I persisted because I realized that in the 11 years of keeping this blog, I have  never pictured a Rat!

The purple headed merganser?

Thus ended our day.

(A couple of Buffleheads, I think, simultaneously diving.)

On Sunday the 29th, we figured we'd try again to see the great influx of birds at our local hiking spot. Once again, we opted to peek at the dens first, since it was sunny if not too warm. (High 40s, low 50s.)

Our pal Blister was out again. His blisters have receded in the past two weeks, leaving little deflated scars along his length. He didn't look bad, though, and we saw him out and about crawling around, doing the little looking-for-food head sway.

Near him was another Garter peeking out into the sun... this fella was still half in the hill... just a tentative peek.

So, how did we do on birds? Not great, but we did add two... #76, a Tufted Titmouse. (Totally on to me.)

And #77, a Tree Sparrow.

While there, we went up the hill that overlooks the path we usually walk on (where the people are at the bottom of the picture) and this perspective certainly gives a different impression!

"Our" Snaplings were released in the river somewhere over the hill in the left of the picture.

This distant hawk was watching the marsh below for a tasty snack.

And that is how our November ended.

Those Ain't Boids. 11-21-2020

 There was supposedly a bird irruption going on (RIP Eddie... I had "Eruption" in my head all day) so we got the camera and headed to a supposed hot spot nearby. Of course, along the way, we decided to hit the local dens. Temps were only in the 40s, but the sun was shining.

Roble's Den... a plump Redback greeted us.

This gorgeous specimen made us remark about how coveted a Redback sighting should be to people. Yes, they are super common, but they are stunning salamanders.

There was indeed one Garter up at Robles' place, a dusty character who had some of those (what I suspect are frostbite) blisters along his length. Some Vitamin D is a good idea, mate.

Though certainly not as warm as we or the snakes would have liked, the Valley had two Garters stretching out in the sun.

The Cottonwood Den had but one slender Garter out.

Here's a look at that noggin after he pulled it into the sun.

What of the birds? We didn't really see anything. But I got #70 on the year in the Dollar Tree parking lot on the way home... Ring-billed Gull.

Eh, we have fun.

The Last Turtles and Frogs of 2020. 11-8-2020

 Another day of sun and pleasant temps was in the forecast for that Sunday, so we drove to Plymouth County to our oft-visited turtle spot. I needed a Painted Turtle, dammit! Even though we'd already had a frost the week before, I figured we'd see some noggins here and there. And we did.

In fact, our first sighting was indeed a Painter.

We knew we wouldn't be seeing a ton of animals, but we enjoyed being out in the sun in what already seemed like the middle of the winter. The trees and grass were covered with a delicate webbing. Possibly from sheet-weaver spiders (Linyphiidae)? Our shoes were covered by the time we left.

Another noggin was up. Much to our delight, this one belonged to a Spotted Turtle, definitely a November first.

We had the honor of watching him swim around for a while.

I'd been hoping for frogs, but wasn't holding my breath. Amphibians always tend to be a bit smarter dealing with the cold weather than reptiles. We were very grateful for this November Bullfrog.

An actual basking Painted Turtle.

Since we didn't get a Florida trip in this year, we figured this was the closest thing to walking the canals in the Everglades. Long, sunny paths, surrounded by water. Except no 'gators.

An extraordinary thing happened next. From the middle of the bog, a large Buck came running out, through the water and across the path about 30 yards in front of us. Ever the astute nature photographer, I turned on my camera, raised it... and realized that it had been on and I'd turned it off. Oops. Here's a photo of a hoof-mark in the path.

Still, it was an awesome sight, in the true sense of the word.

I started seeing more Painter noggins...

Hey, wait... that noggin is a Bullfrog's!

By the time we got to the big pond, the sun was getting a bit lower. Still, there were a few picta warriors.

I added a bird to my year (#69) and my life-list (#191), the ridiculously cute Pied-billed Grebe.

The Bullfrog gods were smiling down upon us.

I put quite a bit of effort into this wee Green Frog. Totally worth it.

We were realizing this was likely our last true hike of the year. Of course, we'll visit dens and do our beach walking for turtle patrol (though we haven't yet been called to do it), but this would be our last "lets go see what we can" hike. I didn't want it to end. Here are the last Painted Turtles we saw.

And that is likely it. I leave (hah!) you with a gorgeous lady and some gorgeous foliage.

We had some 20° nights since this day. Though it will be warmer again this coming weekend, we'll stick to the easy stuff or a beach walk. (Over 150 turtles have come in thus far, but we haven't been on the beach yet.)

Here it be November. 11-6 & 7-2020

 Considering we got about 5" of snow in Boston on the day before Halloween, I pretty much figured the year was over except for beach walks. (Yes, turtles have started coming in.) But lo and behold, some warmer temps came in and by the end of the week, it was downright Spring-like! Andrea decided to take a long lunch on Friday afternoon and we made a bee-line to the dens to see if any knuckleheads were sunning themselves.

It was in the high 60s and in the sun, it was full on hot. I'd seen a Painted Turtle basking that morning while I was doing errands, so my hopes were high. We went up to Robles' Den first. Before we got there, as I was contemplating flipping the ever-present piece of plywood, I noticed that it was occupied.

This Garter is the first snake we've ever seen on this particular mound. Exciting!

There were three more Garters out and about on Robles' hill. That first gal was a super-clean stunner.

Definitely off to a good start. By the way... it's now 32 consecutive months photographing a snake in Massachusetts.

On the way down to Sly's Den and the Valley, this large Garter was so fervently poking around that I couldn't get a decent shot.

While I was watching that one, Andrea walked up to this stunning, massive female. Easily 3 feet o' Garter!

She was majestic and never took her eyes off Andrea.

This skinny guy was slithering around Sly's hill.

Meanwhile, this guy was exploring a den spot we'd discovered earlier this year near Sly's place.

What of the Valley? This large female Garter was nestled under a tree catching rays. I suspect she might have been caught out in the cold last week... that looks like frostbite bumps and marks on her front end.

Andrea finally found a Water Snake nestled quietly in the leaves.

She got this shot from another angle, showing off the snake's lovely colors.

We next hit the Cottonwood Den, thinking it was going to be a madhouse. It was fairly quiet, with this being the only Garter we saw. (Though it's likely we missed a few.) The previous weekend's snow had crushed a lot of foliage, obscuring our sight lines.

We managed some beautiful Redbacks on the way back to the path, though. Andrea flipped this stunning Goldtop.

While I added a traditional Red phase.

Heading along towards the Rock Wall Den, we saw this massive female Garter just crawling along. No clue where she calls home but she was a snake on a mission and was tough to get a shot of.

Easily another 3 footer.

We were greeted at the Rock Wall by this cute niblet.

Now, last time we were here, there was a rock in front of the den that I flipped and there were three shoestring Garters under it. I was reluctant to flip it this time in case there were dead-by-freezing babies under it. But I saw a thin, brown tail crawl under the rock as we were walking by and decided to peek.

Ho-lee COW! There's a DeKay's, the first I'd seen in a while, the Garter that coaxed me there (under the rock at the top) and a Blue-spotted Salamander.!

You just can't get much better than that!

Our time was definitely up, so we started back. We did hit the Valley again on the way out to see the progress of the snakes we'd seen earlier. Most had moved on. Sly's Den gave us one last very welcome surprise... a Ribbon Snake was noodling about.

For those keeping count (i.e. me), that's four snake species on this balmy, early November day.

One last flip of Old Faithful got us this sexy burgundy Redback. A fine end to the two hour hike.

The next day, Saturday the 7th, we had some family stuff to tend to but when that was done, there was still a bright sun and warm temps, so we headed over to our local cemetery to see if any turtles were still up catching some rays. It was about 2:30 or 3 PM, so the sun was starting to shift a bit, but I could still see a distant chelonia basking.

On the way to a get better vantage point, I saw a clump of leaves move slightly closer to the pond's edge. We patiently waited and were rewarded with a glimpse of a Snapper noggin which quickly returned to foraging underwater.

This wasn't one of our familiar friends, but a smaller Snapper.

The distant basker turned out to be a very proud Red-eared Slider. He's probably been living in this pond for years, dumped there by a well-meaning but idiotic pet owner. Beautiful animal, though, enjoying some yoga.

My pathetic 2020 Bird Count got all the way to #68 with a Hooded Merganser. Check out those chompers!

There wasn't as much turtle (in)action as I was hoping for but one island had 3 shells showing...

They were a Red-ear...

and two Yellow-bellies.

This is the first time we've seen T.s. scripta at this pond. Obviously, some more asswipes tired of caring for their pets dumped them there. I suspect we'll get our lifer Map Turtle here soon... I've noticed Petco selling them lately.

Hell, "invasive" or not, these are all beautiful turtles and are a joy to view. Perhaps it is telling that we saw no Painted Turtles up. Have they been driven out? Or are they just less cold tolerant than their interloping Southern neighbors? I don't know. I'm still trying to figure out why someone would decide that they no longer want to share their home with an animal they took in to care for and love.

All that aside, this was a wonderful two days of animal sightings. Hell... nine species of reptile and amphibian in about 26 hours! Keep it coming!