Endless Summer... Ends. 9-17-2022

Massive Saturday on tap... hanging with friends, making music and going to a concert and movie that night. Still, we wanted to get out for a bit. Considering the lovely rain and cooler weather we'd been having, we opted for our close-by spot, the one where we check the dens in the winter. It is a good spot for salamanders and Blue-Spotteds (hybrids) can be found there.

We got there and the sun was warm. We checked an open field first because we'd seen predated turtle nests there before. There could be hatchlings. Or shoestrings, which have also been seen there. No such luck this time, but in the woods next to the field, this beautiful Garter skittered into view.

Heading into the park proper, we checked the big vernal... full of plants and dry, at least where we could see it. No salamanders. We decided to check den spots, even though snakes are scattered. No squamates, but we saw this nice Redback, which turned out to be our only caudate on the day.

Searching through some backwoods trails, we came upon a tarp. I love tarps. I started to unravel it and saw a new Green Frog hiding out in the collected water.

I decided to stop right there as the water was obviously being used and I didn't want to spill any.

Some places were starting to recover their water. Looking off a bridge, we saw this young Bullfrog enjoying some moisture.

We searched all through and around the dens but it was all snakeless. We decided to go up to the neighboring park to look around the rocks and see how the water is doing. We got to a rock that I call Water Snake Rock. One time, there were five Nerodias under it. I flipped it and there was one!

I had to hold the rock so I asked Andrea to move the midsized Water Snake, a size that I find always bites. It did. Right on the finger. Her blood mingled with my tears of laughter. I mean, we knew she was gonna get it!

The brook was looking pretty good, water-wise. This young Painter was sure enjoying his day.

The rocks proved to be fruitful. I stopped to photograph this vivid Garter, not even noticing the second (in the blue) one popping out the front. I finally noticed and got a shot of the two of them.

This pretty Garter was sunning in a bush a foot or two off the ground.

Since we were there, we took a walk to the river. It had been sad the last time we were there, with the river being so low it was mostly mudflats. On the way there, I got a peek through the trees at this stack o' Painters! Extra noggin in lower left corner.

The river was recovering nicely, thanks to the heavy rains of late. Painted Turtles were once again basking on perches that were land-locked last month.

This little fucker looks as happy as a clam!

We had to leave, so we high-stepped it back through the two parks. We made a last minute decision to head back to the car by taking the cemetery path on the last stretch.

We saw a bunch of wooden boxes along the edge, mostly containing square cement slabs. I said to Andrea, "I wonder how many workers lift those up and see snakes!"

The last box was our holy shit moment.

Easily over five feet of Racer. It is the largest snake we have ever seen in Suffolk County. She was pretty chill... her tongue flicked a bit but she wasn't about to give up her precious, secret sunny spot.

Not a bad way to end the hike. Not a bad way to end the summer, which until September had been pretty dire. Seven species of snake (so far) in September. We had seven total snakes in August. Things have certainly been looking up.