We were greeted by a bunch of Bullfrogs. The bogs were looking much better since our last visit.
At one point, I saw a toad in the grass but he totally handed me my ass. Andrea had her eye on a Ribbon Snake in the brush and was poised to grab it until we noticed it had a tiny frog snack in its mouth. She halted and the frog made it away anyway. Two (or three) near misses!
I finally made peace with myself on the Fowler's Toad front...
Next stop, we saw a distant Painted Turtle. I snapped an iffy shot just in case we saw no others.
Peeling back bark on logs sometimes works. Sometimes not. This time, it got us a private Fowler's.
The next time, it got us a Ringneck.¡Salud!
Fowler's were pretty easy to spot. Despite being their main food source, we saw no Hogs. We did explore about a mile of new trails but still came up empty. Plenty o' toads, though.
From there, we went over to the station to get some water. While there, of course we had to look for Redbellies, who often bask there. Yep- a massive cooter was up, just owning the place.
I was walking away to look on the edges of the pond when Andrea called me back. She'd seen orange in a hole. Upon closer inspection, it was a Painted hatchling who had fallen back in. We then started to dig.
One more was in there.
We put them down into the grass next to the water. They'll know what to do.
Happy with having seen babies, we sat for a while on the peninsula. This pair of distant Painted Turtles were keeping the perch balanced.
That was it for the day but since it was a Friday and we weren't in work and we got to see some animals, it's all very good.
The next day, we decided to take the Copperhead trail in Norfolk County. We obviously hoped to see a Copper but we also wanted to see a Racer and some shoestring Garters. It was a very overcast day and it seemed like it should be good for snakes but. alas, we saw none. But...
It was pretty warm and salamanders were not expected, but our first sight was a newly metamorphed Spotted Salamander.
Even more surprising was our first Marbled Salamander of the year. This biggie is fat. It seems far too early to be eggs so I guess it's just eating very well.
Another unexpected sight... not just seeing an Eft but one snuggling with a Toga Mantle Slug.
Another bright, new Spottie.
More newt strange bedfellows... this more-or-less adult Red-spotted Newt, who looks to be in search of a pond, was sharing the bark with a North American Millipede. We saw dozens of millipedes.
Another new and vivid Spotted Salamander!
Why not just one more Eft, too!
And we ended with... you guessed it:
We didn't see any snakes but our Cuadate game was strong. All of those Spotteds were this year's models and that Marbled was a beastly huge adult. Ambystoma joy.
That was it. We headed home but had to stop off at Andrea's garden plot to weed a little. We did, then I started photographing the bees who were enjoying the sunflowers. In addition to bumblebees, we had some Bi-colored Striped Sweat Bees and Three-knotted Longhorn Bees. The Bumble had some nice saddle-bags going.
Thus ended August, 2024.
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