November

With the end of the season, desperation usually sets in. We try to get out whenever it's warm enough to bear it, knowing we'll not see a ton of stuff. But we never say never.

November 1st.

It wasn't horrible out on the first day of November. I suggested that we hit the local dens on Andrea's lunch-break. We did. And we did see a snake. Some of one, anyway. This Water Snake was half in and half out of the hole in the tree-den in the Valley. It counts, right?

One wee Redback was also on the lunch menu that day. We happily accepted our two viewings.

November 7th.

I'm off on Thursdays now, too. The 7th was a sunny Thursday. That's right, I suggested we hit the dens. We did! The tree-hole in the Valley was even more satisfying than it had been 6 days earlier!

Same Water Snake? I doubt it but you never know.

Encouraged, we moved on. Another sweet Redback was waiting for us.

The Cottonwood Den held a stripey surprise, our only Garter for the month!

Handsome one, at that.

That was it for the day but we were quite happy.

November 8th.

The next day, was a Friday and Andrea was off. We threw caution to the wind (literally) and took a hike along the dam at dear old Ponkapoag Pond. We'd hoped to see a turtle but the drought (no good rain since mid-August) had really taken its toll and even the great Pond itself was incredibly low. The edges were dry. We did a good three mile hike and save one tenacious Redback, we took no photographs.

Here is our only critter photo on the day...

Still, it felt good to get some exercise since we hadn't been getting out much.

November 24th.

We finally got some rain. A couple of heavy days worth. We hadn't gone out for a few weeks because it was cold and still very dry. This particular Sunday had some good sun, but it was also extremely windy. We checked all of our known dens and explored some new possibilities but no snakes were dumb enough to be out. I mean, it was only 45°. They're not that dumb.

We'd hoped it would be a good day for Salamanders, since we'd gotten some rain. Some of the pools had a little water in them, but it was still fairly dry under many of the logs and rocks we flipped. Our only sighting, once again, was a lone Redback, and that was after almost 3 miles of hiking again. He was a last minute find, too. It made it all worthwhile.

And that was our November.