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!