I was up late on Friday night (band played) but tried my best to get up and out early Saturday. The weather was nice, if even a bit HOT, and we were rarin' to go. Sort of. We went to our favorite pond in Norfolk County for the first time on the year. Seemed like a good bet.
Many birds were calling and that made us feel good. We didn't see anything until we got to the dam area and then we saw this Spotted Turtle.
The dam itself is an area where people let their dogs run into the pond and fetch and stuff. That's fine with me. There is, however, a very good Water Snake spot right next to there. I was worried we wouldn't see any due to the canine frivolity. I looked in the snakey area but saw nothing. Then Andrea informed me that I'd walked right past a Nerodia up on the dam who was scared and confused and couldn't figure out how to get back.
Evidently, the dogs scared him up there. I gently picked him up and moved him back to the now dog-free spot. No bite, no musk.
A bit further down, Andrea spied another Water Snake swimming.
From there on out, we were just seeing spots. Spotted Turtle butts, that is. They weren't making photos very easy.
Hey! Finally! A face!
We saw a Garter but it slithered away from us. We added a few birds, including a female Black and White Warbler (#73).
I missed another Garter, a small guy that was actually right there. I'm a dummy. Andrea made everything right again with our First of Year American Toad.
Kind of pathetic that it took until Mid May, but there you go.
I saw another Garter and caught it so I wouldn't miss out on another shot. Since I'd had so much success calming one down to photograph the week before, I tried again.
Yeah, no... it was having nothing of it. My hat got musked, as did my hands. He won.
A bit further up the trail, however, this beautiful Garter gal was periscoping very nicely.
She was super cool and check out that scar! Man, is she one resilient snake!
Another American Toad hopping across the path.
Andrea was feeling a bit cooked and I pretended that I wasn't. I decided to do the flippin' when we got to Hobo Camp and Ringneck Hill. On the way there, a guy had stopped and was taking a picture with his phone ahead of us. I asked what he saw...
A very nice Garter Gal, about 2 feet long or more.
That pretty much did it for a while. The Camp and Hill had nothing except a backache for me. We went to the pond and soaked our feet for a while, which was rejuvenating and lovely. I resorted to photographing mammals on the way out as it had become pretty hot and snakes and frogs had disappeared. Here's a spunky Red Squirrel.
And a Chipmunk.
So, we chipped away at our FOYs again with the toad. Little by little, this weird year is unraveling.
Sunday was warm again, although a tad cooler. We almost decided to stay home but took a run over to our Green Snake place to have a peek. This place is Gartery as all get out, too, but after missing one on the walk in, we didn't see any until this guy was slithering across the path.
That was it until we were leaving and were checking the rocks along the beach. This Garter was peeking out at us.
There are some stunners at this spot... here is a full shot of her beauty.
That's that... another one-post week. Either we've lost our touch or we're lazy or we just don't give a shit enough to work hard for it. Personally, I'd rather see some easy Garter Snakes than fancy trophy targets that I have to work my ass off for.
I'm enjoying old age. Piss off.
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