The 17th Weekend of 2022. April 22 and 23.

 The usual... I was off and Andrea worked on Friday the 22nd. It was very nice out. We hit the dens at lunchtime.

Now, remember that I've said that this isn't a turtle place? Well, once again, there was a Painter basking in the vernal. I owe this to the fact that it hasn't completely dried up in the last 2 years.

Like last week, Andrea surprised me with another Painter hatchling crossing the path. Naturally, this made us carefully watch our step.

As expected, the denizens of the dens have pretty much dispersed by this time. This one periscoping Garter seemed content to stay nearby, though. Maybe he was looking for a new place to crawl to.

Our other lunchtime sightings were some lovely Redbacks.

It was still very nice at 5 PM when Andrea was freed from work, so we went over to another nearby spot in Norfolk County. It was actually cooler than we'd expected so there weren't many critters about. I did flip a shoestring garter who gave us some 'tude!

The next morning, we decided to head into Plymouth County for a walk around a favorite spot where we hoped to check off a few First of Years. We didn't get there until late as we were hoping it was going to warm up. It never really did. Still, we started off with a few Redbacks, who were plentiful!

Heading toward the vernal, we got a nice surprise... I flipped this and yelled out FO2Y!

It was actually FO2.5Y... we hadn't seen a Massachusetts Redbellied Snake since July, 2019! This felt pretty good!

I could see something funny in the vernal from the top of the hill... as I got closer, it got funnier.  A Painter was up, basking on an old tire.

By the time we got down there, another one had joined him.

We could hear toads and Bullfrogs calling but the only sighting we got of an anuran was this wee, quiet Bully.

Our next stop was, as always, the bogs. Frogs were plentiful. Bull, Green, Bull, Bull for those keeping score.

^^^ The feet!

Spotted Salamanders had done their business earlier in the month.

When heading down the path to the bog, a couple was ascending and we asked if there were any critters down there. They said yes- a massive Snapper was in the second bog. We wondered if we'd see it. We did. They were absolutely right. This guy is a brute!

We ended our bog walk with another nice Bully Bull.

Being that time of year, we hurried over to the portion of the place where we'd seen piles of Racers goin' at it last year. It was too cool and windy this time and we saw none. Our only sight there was this chorus line of Painters.

Ironically, just as we were leaving that spot, Andrea got a text from a dear friend who was asking where the Pile o' Racer spot was! We relayed that it was Racerless and told her where we were heading. She was already there! So, we got to have a nice hang with her and look at turtles together. Our First of Year Plymouth Redbellies were up and sunning!

Those two had to make room for one more!

And another!

A young Bald Eagle flew over us.

Further on, we saw a basking site with both Redbellies and Painters.

Our last cold-blooded critters were a pair of Redbacks.

We were all enjoying our time together and it was tough to actually get into our cars and go home but after a little birding, we finally did. It's always good to catch up with friends and enjoy nature together.

I leave you with our 2022 bird #65, a tough to photograph Pine Warbler.