Oddly enough, this was our only successful flip (among a hundred more). It was wet from the previous day's rain so I can understand snakes being absent but no Toads or Salamanders, either. Oh well... the thrill of the hunt was ever-present.
Leaving the mill area, on a dirt road heading to the main dirt road, a small Pickerel hopped into our way.
About 30 feet on from there, a skinny Garter was in the road in full hunt mode, his head bobbing back and forth, looking for lunch. I didn't tell him about the frog. He'd find something on his own.
The main dirt road has bogs on one side and marshland on the other. This made for some good Bullfrog sightings (and one Painter who evaded my camera).
^^^ This guy is beefy!
We went to the beachy area next to our parking spot now that there were no dudes sitting in their trucks waiting for a hookup. We walked the edges of the beach and I poked through the wrack looking for Musk Turtles. I found one!
There was a small pool on the beach nestled under a tree and fed by waves from the pond. This stunner of a Bullfrog was guarding the edge.
I kept thinking I was scaring small frogs from the edges but we finally figured out that it was Crayfish darting about. I got a picture of one (finally) and it is a non-native Rusty Crayfish.
We got into the car and made our way to the front, along the main (paved) road where people are usually fishing. There was but one guy there and he was nice and we all talked about a bright red Nerodia that we'd seen (and I got a shitty picture of). The small River Herring were out in full force in the lake, skirting the edges en masse.
Their presence was really stirring up the Silver Perch who kept lunging up to the surface to grab them.
Musk Turtles were also visible foraging in the muck beneath the dam.
Know why we call this Musk Turtle Spot? We watched both fish and turtles for quite a while.
A beautiful bug landed on me and Andrea informed me that it was a dreaded Spotted Lantern Fly. No, I did not kill it, it buzzed off in a brilliant flash of color. I did report it, though.
Guess who had come back by now... Mr. Red! Now, I have seen thousands of Northern Water Snakes over the decades, but never one who retained her reds like this one. Pushing 3 feet and looking like a candy cane!
She was probably very interested in these, too.
We took a walk along the shore of the other lake across the street looking for, of course, baby Musks. Well, we saw on hiding its head in the algae so I leaned in a dropped a penny next to it for scale.
Andrea stayed and filmed the little guy and I went further on and found this mostly metamorphed clay-looking Bullfrog. Still a bit of a tail stump.
We went up to another dirt road just to look around. The cranberry bog had plenty of Bullfrogs in it... here are but a fraction of them.
This little Bull guy was in the lake. Smaller than the clay-colored guy, it was more developed.
From there, we decided to head over to the other broken down mill in Plymouth County, only a few miles away. We got there and right away saw this Woodland Vole (mostly) under a rock snoozing or eating. As soon as it noticed us, it was off in a flash.
We were poking around, looking for turtles as usual when Andrea noticed a snake. Or two.
It was two Water Snakes having a tug-of-war with a fish in between them. Amazing. The black on was on top of a spillway fence and the red one was below in the water. The red was bigger and if I had to put money on it, I'd have put it on her. But they both had a good hold.
Amazing. We watched for quite a while. A family came by and the little girl enjoyed seeing the fight while a little boy was just kind of noisy and happy that an adult was paying attention to them. The little girl was very proud to point out a resting Water Snake she had seen.
The little boy tried to get me to go with him after that and I said "I'm going to stay with my wife and you should stay with your family". Finally, an adult appeared to take some damn responsibility. We watched the tug o' war a bit longer with a family (of adults) that were enthralled. We watched for about 15 minutes and it remained a stalemate. We went off to see if any other snakes were around.
Just one, resting in a warm wall, probably digesting.
It's hard to not be super happy with the day's sights, even though it's a mere five species. Back in the car heading towards the closest town, we made one more nature pitstop... a human-destroyed former favorite spot that still has its small patches of possibilities.
We got there and headed straight to the Picnic Table Graveyard. The wood held no surprises for us but some broken up asphalt was a treasure of shoestring Garters.
That was enough for me! Mission accomplished! I did check the bog next to the parking lot on the way out and found a small Green Frog relaxing in the shade.
Andrea ended our day with another small Green in a puddle next to the bog.
Now that was a good day in my book. Not a huge species count but some amazing sights... Red Nerodia, tug of war, triple shoestring flip... it all adds up to an excellent day in the field. I wonder if the tug of war is still going on...
The next morning, I had planned on hitting a spot in the Blue Hills that we usually only hit in the early Spring. It gets super buggy in the Summer but I figured we'd give it a try anyway because it's quick and flat and I (incorrectly) thought we had afternoon plans, so I wanted to keep it quick.
Upon starting towards the path, it dawned on me that, despite some recent rain, the marshland would be dry and turtles might not be present. That was correct. It was dry as a bone. Plus, having never visited this spot at this time of year, we didn't know just how grown-in it would be. We walked an almost two mile path on a foot wide path through a jungle.
Finally, 2 miles in on a cross path, a Wood Frog made itself known and I got a blurry shot.
Worth the trouble right there!
Heading back, a big Green Frog jumped into the bushes and presented me with a real photo challenge. I think I did OK.
We trudged through the grassy path back towards the car. A small frog jumped like a wild checkers move into the grass. Pickerel? Leopard? It didn't matter which... I couldn't find it. Finally, back to the beginning of the trail, Andrea spied a Garter near a known den-spot. Have they already returned to their Winter digs?
The best way to end this post is with a handsome Garter head on a mossy pillow.
The end of the season is nigh but there may still be a few good days out there and I'm glad we had a decent weekend to start off Autumn.
Nice finds! Those baby musk turtles are awesome.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yes! They're cute and tiny!
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