The weather sure was picking up... we had a few nice 'n sunny days. One was Friday the 9th, but Andrea was working. But we planned a lunchtime visit to our local dens, with visions of writhing mating balls dancing in our heads. It was sunny and warm... what could possibly go wrong?
Well, not much went wrong, really, but much to our mutual surprise, we saw no snakes. We did see a few critters, though. First up was a lovely Redback.
We checked the vernals for egg masses but couldn't spot any from our vantage points. This Green Frog, only our second of the year, was sunning on a log in the pool, though.
Checking the dens closely, we managed to flip a lovely Leadback.
We went on and were surprised to not see any snakes, but that's the way it goes. Taking the trail back to the car on this quick hike, we were happily surprised to see a Painted Turtle taking a hike, too.
We helped him to the edge of a pool as there were many many dogs present that day.
Last sight: our second Bullfrog on the year was spotted by his lunky head sticking out of the water!
Despite the snakelessness of it, it was a pretty darn good lunch-hour. We ran into some local friends on the way out, which was also nice.
The next day was supposed to be more of the same, so we headed to our new favorite place for possibilities and broken hearts. Let's face it, we wanted turtles and snakes and that place is good for both. Oddly enough, salamanders are rare there, but our first stone flipped gave us a plump Redback!
The wooded area got us nothing but empty bladders, so we headed up to the main trails. We started out in a mine a rich vein of Spotted Turtles.
Yes, a Painted Turtle was interloping there!
And thus started a rich vein of Painters...
This little guy was swimming out where he really shouldn't have been... right in the open, easy pickins for fish, frogs or anything, really.
I risked life and limb to gather him up and we placed him into some reedy cover. (He likely either swam back out or was eaten in there, anyway!)
We saw one humongous Snapper briefly, but no rich vein materialized.
(The eye!)
We got to a path that I wasn't sure we should bother with. It goes around a wetland that is either hit or miss and I didn't want to waste time if nothing was there. Andrea suggested that we should. She was right. On the back end of the trail, we hit a rich Green Frog vein, full of bright beauties.
Keeping with the bright, green and beautiful theme, a rich vein of Bullfrogs emerged next.
We'd heard American Toads calling since we opened our car doors in the parking area but still hadn't seen any. Finally, with some careful stepping and quiet stalking, we found a rich vein of the toads. First was a two-headed one! Or something.
Toads soothe the soul.
We reached a sit-down spot (near a very polite kid fishing... hope for the future), but I couldn't take my eyes off of the water. It seems that in the distance, there was a rich vein of Redbellied Cooters, our first ones of the year.
Yes, there are a few Painters among the Cooters. So...
Let's just say we got into a rather large vein of Painted Turtles, including lots of little nippers.
This guy was in the grass, having recently crossed the path from the pond toward the bogs.
More basking wee warriors...
Also of note, six days after this trip, it snowed fairly heavily here. That's fucked up. Maybe the snakes are the smart ones.
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