Good Riddance, oh August. 8-26, 27 & 28.

Can't get rid of this August fast enough. Sickness, death and so far, only four damn snakes! Miserable weather... drought... Well, we were going to get a little rain on Friday (the 26th). Before it hit, we were bored and decided to go to a local spot to look for a bird that I'd never heard of. It was pretty hot but we dressed cool and headed on over to this Norfolk County spot.

We parked, then walked towards the river. The poor river. Mostly a sandbar with puddles. But I walked into the mud and was rewarded with a pair of Bullfrogs.

A wee "This Year's Model" Green Frog hopped up to see what was happening.

Where there was water, there were Painted Turtles. We were a little surprised to see them up basking on such a hot day, but there you go... sun turtles!

The walk was already well worth it. Yeah, I still had (have) cold symptoms but this makes it all better.

This GBH looked a bit disgruntled, though.

A thru-the-trees sneaky Painter Chorus Line shot.

We saw a few more Bullfrogs as the skies started to darken.

Well, that was an excellent unplanned walk! The rains did come and it was torrential for a while, which we needed so much. It also cooled things off a bit. Saturday, the 27th, was supposed to be in the mid-70s.

We got up and out early on Saturday and headed into Plymouth County. Andrea, as always, has baby turtle fever and the place we went is super turtley. It was still cool when we got there. Oddly enough, we saw nothing for the better part of two miles... missed a quick Pickerel Frog and saw a Painter head pull into the drink with no picture. Finally, I photographed this clump in the water just after it blinked. Starting with a Snapper is always fun.

At a spot where there are boards set up between a bog and a spillway, there was a massive Bullfrog hanging out in the space between the boards. He was obviously eating everything that spilled over the side.

Hopefully, he got out with no problem. I'd considered helping but he was likely very content where he was.

Painted Turtles were the order for the day. Once we started seeing them, we saw a lot. The river and bogs had plenty of water.

(There might be a Snapper beak in the lower left corner of this shot.)

Andrea next found this stunning Fowler's Toad.

Another behemoth  Bullfrog.

Let us all admire the grace and beauty of the Painted Turtle. Since that's mostly all I got pictures of, we don't have a choice!

Little blighter!

At the half way point, we sat for a bit, but not before looking around. Andrea said "There's a Nerodia swimming towards you!" Sure enough, there was!

She was looking for a snack along the edge. She never noticed me standing there, even as she poked around near my foot.

Walking along the big pond, a Pickerel hopped between my feet.

I'll admit that I was pretty gassed by now. We'd done a few miles and despite taking a lot of breaks, I was feeling kinda shiddy. I stood at another spillway looking into the water, and this young Painted Turtle swam up to me... again, I don't think he knew I was there.

We sat at that spot for a while, just watching the water. My zoom lens picked out a Painter noggin or two.

Walking back, we spotted this youngster up on the path. She quickly turned around and walked back to the water.

This Pickerel jumped into a perfect pose!

Another rest. This one involved laying down and sharing a pop-tart with some excited Bluegills. Andrea said "Is that a noggin out there?"

It was.

Another small Painter was up on land, walking the path with us.

We got to a part of the pond that is usually pretty good for stacks but the level was noticeably low so there were mostly single basking Painters.

A Black Swallowtail posed very nicely for us.

A couple more Painters...

This is a really beautiful Green Frog, with a gorgeous emerald head speckling onto his back, but I just couldn't get a decent shot.

One last Painter on the day... the lil nipper!

Here's a Red-legged Grasshopper, a species I'd missed the year I was doing a Grasshopper/ Cricket count.

That was that. I was absolute toast... probably did way more than I should have. But in 6 miles, we saw some cool animals. But I must admit that I was disappointed with just one snake. Our 5th for August. Not fair.

The next day, I really needed to rest. If we were going to get some fresh air, it had to be an easy place. It was fairly hot and we were tired so I said, "let's do Green Snake Place." (3 Greens in 8 years makes it our most reliable spot. Sad, isn't it?)

We got there after noon and as usual, we scoured the place. Looking here, looking there... scrutinizing the terrain. Nothin'. Then, laying right out in plain sight, Andrea saw this...

Mother Nature had thrown us a bone that was a long time coming. First of Year Smooth Green.

We were very pleased, obviously. We never hit "targets". We found a place overlooking the harbor, in the shade with a cool breeze. Not a bad way to vegetate on a Sunday.

We poked around some new spots there. It's bigger than we ever give it credit for. But it is filthy. Still, beauty can be found. We saw a Common Tern (#90) diving into the drink, looking for lunch.

As we were walking back to the parking area, we were once again lamenting the lack off shoestring snake babies. Then Andrea saw this neonate Garter taking what is likely his first ever meal.

That ended the day, and thus August, on a pretty good note.

Wow... we saw 7 snakes in all of August. Oh well, at least we finally saw a Massachusetts Green. It doesn't happen every year.

Here's hoping that September is a better month for everyone.

Rebirth. 8-21-2022

My late friend Flea used to have a theory about sickness. Whenever he was sick, he'd go work out, playing basketball and hustling and working up a sweat, essentially sweating the illness out. He swore by it. Since the ol' Covid has kept hanging on, I put myself into Flea mode and took a hike on Sunday morning. We'd taken a short walk on Saturday so I knew it could be done.

I was feeling pretty polluted but we got to our spot at about 9 AM and it was sunny, with temps in the mid-70s. We went slowly. I strayed over towards a stream that was nothing but a dustbowl. I'd never seen it dry before, but this drought has been lethal. Andrea was digging in the field so I went over to see what she was up to.

It seems she had found a nest of hatching Painted Turtles. They were very much in the way of foot traffic, so she played in the dirt for a while.

She took the fistful of five hatchlings over to the (very low) pond and we found a suitable place for them to have a chance to survive and thrive.

The last two stragglers eventually went in and got into the muck.

So, about that dried up stream? Yikes!

Along the pond, we saw a miracle... a second August snake! This Water Snake was enjoying a soak.

We went very slowly and I rested quite a lot. I fell asleep in the bird blind for a minute. Eventually, we got to a spot where a gorgeous Pickerel Frog hopped into view.

We slowly carried on. Andrea had a spot she wanted to look for more turtle nests so I laid down under a tree and enjoyed a cool breeze and the fresh air. Beat the heck out of the stale bedroom. She found no other nests but saw an amazing sight with deer drinking from the other side of a pond.

Heading back, we took a different path back, a new one to us. We might have decided against it had we known how long it was going to be, but we made plenty of rest stops. We were rewarded by a spot overlooking a couple of (very low) ponds. It was lovely. There were a few Green Herons poking around and they're always a treat.

We didn't see any more critters until that path hooked back up with the main path. There, we saw this beautiful young Garter with a meal in it's gullet.

Here's his face...

Well, the sweat was certainly coming. I was exhausted and sweaty but it's all good. We were getting fresh air and seeing some animals. We peeked back into the pond before leaving and saw a massive shell pushing through the lily pads... then this teeny face (attached to a behemoth noggin) broke the surface.

Andrea wanted to check the area we released the hatchlings before we headed to the car. They were all buried and safe. This Pickerel Frog said he'll keep an eye on them.

I was staggering back to the car and I commented to Andrea how odd it was that we saw turtle babies before snake babies! I mean, we usually see shoestring Garters a few weeks before turtles start poppin' out. No sooner had I said that than a wee shoestring squiggled across the path. Luckily, it was in front of us, wand we're always looking down. We whisked it out of danger and moved it to a safer place in Andrea's hat.

So, I survived. I'm not going to say that the Flea Method cured me but my fever didn't get above 99.5 in the day following the hike. And now it is gone. Was it Flea's Flu Formula? Or seeing some critters than has helped so much?

I'm not back to "normal" but I'm not as miserable as I was week ago. I'll take it.