Ending May. 5-31-2024

Andrea had this Friday off and since I always have Fridays off, we made a pilgrimage to Bristol County to try to see a few First-of-Years; Milk Snakes and Musk Turtles, specifically. We got up, hit Fifties Diner for sustenance and made it to our destination by 9 AM.

It seemed at first that we got there a bit too early. Some hot spots weren't hot yet and it took some time before we saw our first amphibian, a small Redback.

We finally saw our first reptile of the day, a basking Water Snake. They are not super-common here, so this was a bonus for us!

A small Garter was also catching some rays. Only our second Garter of May!

That seemed to break the seal because when we got to a place we call "Garter Hill", there were a few snakes out warming up. 

We got to the waterfall and sat down for a rest. I photographed this Striped Fishing Spider from about 25 feet away. He was a monster!

Heading back, we passed garter Hill again and there were plenty of Garters up warming now. This guy looked happy.

Adorning the bush on Garter Hill was this Aurora Damsel.

Heading back, this pretty Garter cut me off and struck a Cobra pose.

We headed back down to the river, surprised that we hadn't seen any turtles yet. Still, none were up but we saw this Belted Kingfisher (#43 on the year) nab some lunch.

Finally, we saw a couple of Painted Turtles up basking on a dock that had floated away.

Heading back to the car, we again hit the garden. It had still been cool on the way in but now it was getting full sun so another look around was warranted. It paid off when we flipped a yearling Milk, our FOY!

Hiding in the corner of a garden space was another Milk, a kind of golden-boy.

Not visible from my photo above, Andrea's phone shot caught a Garter tail behind the Milk.

Having had half-success, we headed over into Plymouth County to our Musk place, initially shown to us by our friend Sārah. We had just arrived when, much to our delight, Sārah herself came cycling by! We all had a lovely talk and caught up after what seems like it had been forever! We all decided to look for a Musk together. The reservoir was full of River Herring.

My usual Musk-finding technique wasn't working too well, but a woman fishing nearby pointed out a turtle on a rock near her. Thank you, miss!! That is our FOY Musk Turtle!

Unfortunately, Sārah had to leave, but she told us about a place nearby that she's had luck seeing animals; a backroad that had some dilapidated mill buildings on it. Sounded amazing! She even photographed it and sent the shots to Andrea's phone as she biked past it! We headed on over.

It is a quiet dirt road with bogs and marsh on either side and the Green Frogs and Bulls were calling. I couldn't quite get my eyes on any, though. I did get a nice shot of a Baltimore Oriole (#44), though.

The old mill area was fenced off and I was still uncertain, despite Sārah's assurance, that it was OK to go in. A couple of teenage girls drove up to the gate. I asked them if it was seriously OK and they said yeah. They both went in, then went back out fairly quickly. I guess their meetup didn't show or something.

The area is a "herper"s paradise. Tons of old boards, pallets and debris; all perfect snake-hiding places. The first few boards got us a few more Garters.

We even got our first anuran on the day there, a pudgy Fowler's Toad.

The place really offers some amazing opportunities. We'll go back some morning as things are warming up. It looks very Racery. 

My favorite sight was amongst a large wall of these boxes...

I'd flipped a piece of wood in front of them and a shoestring garter scurried away. As we watched it, I glanced up into a broken box. This Garter was brilliant. He was protected from all prying eyes (unless you happened to be standing right there, like us), yet was still catching some sun. A safe and satisfying basking spot!

What a wonderful day! We saw some targets, saw a good friend and, thanks to her, have a new spot with a lot of potential. Thank you, Sārah.

Its About Freaking Time. 5-26-2024

Up early, eating breakfast in the car... we're getting to Plymouth County as early as possible! For that is the only way to... fail again. But bless our stupid little heads, we keep on trying. We headed to our (sometimes) favorite state forest again in search of a Hognose, Green, Racer or Redbelly. We struck out on Hogs last year and it was a bitter pill to swallow.

Getting there early wasn't really the remedy. We hoofed it down and up the gas line and had two disgruntled Fowler's Toads to show for it.

Down at the Bog, things were more interesting. Green Frogs were calling like crazy. There were many beautiful specimens and I got what I think is my first ever shot of Greens in amplexus.

Some more suitors...

↓Just missed a full throat sack.

We sat down for a bit. Andrea was having a very tough time with her allergies. Something was really affecting her. We sat down next to a pond and scared in a bunch of Painted Turtles by doing so. Eventually, as we sat, they came back up.

Upon getting back up, I got a Green with his sack out! Yowza!

This is the only Bull we saw in the bog, but it was a giant!

We skipped our usual next stop. Personally, I didn't feel like dragging myself for another 2 miles of seeing nothing. We went to a spot to sit down again. (At my age, these rest stops are becoming more frequent.) We got to watch some massive Redbellies sun themselves while we contemplated quitting going on hikes.

We walked a little bit around that area, taking in the non-snake beauty. Pink Ladyslippers are out in force in some places.

I think this is a Blue Corporal. There were a lot of them.

While I was cranky, Andrea calmly suggested we explore a new trail. There are plenty of them here and we've been sticking to the same ones for years. We've done so because they'd been fruitful. In the past. But not for some time now. So we got in the car and I asked left or right. We went right.

I pulled into a parking area that might not have been legal. We decided to make it a quick hike just in case. Her allergies were a bit better after that rest. Right away, we saw another Fowler's.

Then, maybe about 100 yards from where we parked, some strange colubrid was on the edge of the path...

You know, it had been so long that I'd almost forgotten what they look like! I almost thought it was a Gopher Snake! But no, not an out of range Gopher, but a pretty adult Hog. Finally.

It stayed pretty chill while we photographed it. I've seen them play dead; I never have to again. I imagine that it expends a lot of energy to do so. I'd rather just watch them.

Of course, Andrea couldn't resist booping it before we left and that made it hood a bit, but we and the snake parted ways, both none the worse for wear.

We tried a couple other paths and decided that we'd had enough. Target hit, we headed home. I did see a smallish Racer crossing the road on the way out. I slammed on the brakes, pulled over and went running towards it, but my camera was off. I was 10 feet from it as it was leaving the road and figured I had a shot at catching it. As soon as it hit the grass, it just disappeared, as if it went into a black hole. Oh well...

So, tenacity paid off. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. The new path made us just a little less insane.

A Sunny Saturday 5-25-2024

We finally got a sunny, warm Saturday so we decided to head into Bristol County to look around one of our favorite spots. Unfortunately, I figured "how crowded could it be... Memorial Day weekend just started." Oops.

Most of our reliable places in this State Park were empty. We'd hoped for a Milk Snake but came up short. We didn't see anything until we got to a quiet part with lots of Painted Turtles and Red-bellied Turtles basking on some mud-flats. Here are a few of our muddy shots.

It's always fun to watch turtles being turtles.

Less fun is reaching what used to be a lovely pond and having it over-run with campers and kids fishing and having a lot of dead Sunfish floating around the water's edge to show for it. I do wish folks would teach kids how to fish properly. I did way back when and I'm an idiot. It CAN be done. Mercifully, nobody saw this oddball pair of Water Snakes gettin' jiggy between some rocks. I'm sure that big mama (that little guy has his sights set high!) would be called a Cottonmouth!

Over on the quiet side of the pond, a chorus line of Painters were practicing for their big show. That massive lump in the front is a Redbell.

Another mixed group of Redbellies and Painters.

A mini-Bullfrog from a secret pond. Shhhh!

A Green Frog enjoying a private mud-puddle.

We stealthily snuck down to a secret viewing area and found out where the massive Red-bellies have relocated to since the reconstruction a few years ago. These three are all pretty huge.

More astounding still was this one which we thought was a tree root from a distance!

This one is a monster!

Heading back, we got to check out some stones that were covered by humanity earlier. We finally scored our first Fowler's Toads on the year.

Heading back, over by a good snake place (that wasn't good this time) this small Fowler's went tearing down the path at an amazing speed. It was hilarious. This shot is him on an inhale. He was out of breath. Maybe he had just seen a snake that we'd missed.

That was it for this place. We went and had some Mandarin Buffet, then went over to another spot to look for Musk Turtles. The water was rushing pretty hard and we saw no turtles, but I photographed a few insects. Here is a River Jewelwing.

And a good ol' Red Admiral.

I've gotta say that I'm not super thrilled with myself for choosing such a human filled place but at least I learned my lesson. Do not go after April to this spot. And avoid it on Memorial Day weekend above all.