TOLD IN NEW CHILLING pICTA-VISION 3-27-2021

 Chrysemys picta picta is the Eastern Painted Turtle. We saw a shit-ton of them on our Saturday walk through a spot in Middlesex County. Need proof?

It was in the high 50s and the sun was out. That means the Painters were out.

We almost got a picture of a Garter Snake. But failed.

But Painters. Painters here, Painters there... Painter, Painters everywhere!

In between ponds, Andrea went to look for Wood Frogs and I sat and listened to unseeable Peepers. Then she came back and we headed back to the Shell Game.

Every place that could support a basking turtle had at least one Painter, usually more.

I mean, come on!!

Even the ducks had turtles with them.

Here's a couple of good butt shots.

Some distant ones...

It wasn't until I uploaded these pics that I realized that a Blanding's Turtle had crept up onto the mound in this shot. I'd been looking for them all day and was surprised to see we'd had one! First of Year.

We took a trail further in and found our idyllic spot... just a nice hidden pond right off the path. The one guy sat there not 10 feet from us while the 6-pack lounged on a log on the other side.

Our turn-around spot had a Tick-Tack-Toe threesome.

We rested, then turned back. We still saw dozens of Painters up basking but figured some might have already been photographed so we didn't take too many shots. Andrea did manage to find our target snake species... our first Water Snake of the year, a chunky gal basking on a clump a good 6 feet out into the pond. She went unnoticed by all (except us).

Having broken the snake seal, Andrea next saw this tannin-stained Garter crawling straight through a beaver dam. We got the photo once he emerged out the opposite side.

I added another tanniny Garter ion a pile of sticks.

We carried on, heading back to the forest trail... with one last look at some Painted Turtles.

By the way, I hadn't mentioned it... we did most of this hike with soaked feet... the path was well-flooded in a few spots.

After a long turtle-free Winter, this was exactly what we needed... turtles by the hundreds!