Hit Me With Your Nature Stick: Paying Our Respects to the Magic Tree. 8-15-2026

We got the bad news during the week. The Magic Tree, our ground zero for Massachusetts Rat Snakes, had fallen. It was just a matter of time. We wanted to visit there within a week of it falling to see if there had been any eggs in it or if, perhaps, there was a baby Rat Snake around. We headed out to Worcester County later than hoped for (Gibson wasn't as effective at being an alarm clock as we'd counted on), getting there just around noon.

We headed directly to the tree site. And a sad sight it was.

Que Sera, Sera.

We looked around and saw no eggs or young 'uns so we moved on. A nearby field was just hopping with Pickerel Frogs. Dozens were jumping around in the dewy grass. This is the one I got the camera on. The whole day.

We hadn't seen a snake since our July 26th Copperheads. I flipped a rock and we finally had an August snake... a shy Ringneck. You can see the head poking out to the left of the stick.

Parked at the side of the field, a lawn plow's shovel had been filled with water, obviously for quite some time. Two Green Frogs thought it was just perfect.

I was very surprised to see an Eft under a rock in a nearby wooded area. I guess the recent rain had brought it down. All of the watery spots were very full. A ranger said that they'd been inundated with rain the past two weekends.

At a small "house" not far from the tree (more of a presentation center), there was a folded tarp in the back. Under it was a feisty Garter!

In the bottom fold, a Ringneck was resting.

Up on the road, I turned over a rock next to a foundation and had another very excited Garter. I brought it out to the road to try to get a shot and maybe some film for the band video I'm making. I got both but I don't know if I'll use the footage.

That Garter was sure pissed, though.

The swampy area had a handful of Painted Turtles up basking.

Towards a beach area, I turned over a rock and two good sized chubby American Toads were under it!

They hopped out, which is all well and good except a guy had a very interested dog on a leash (thankfully) watching it happen. The guy was cool and kept the dog away while the toads hopped back into the cracked foundation of the wall.

Walking through a wooded area, I got the biggest surprise of the day. Now, I know I've been called "the guy who likes Redbacks more than anyone else" and maybe it's true. But we hadn't seen one since June 28th of this year and this guy just looked very good to my Caudata-loving eyeballs.

Yes, I was actually giddy about seeing this guy! So damn happy to see it.

Up by the front where the water is clearer, I expected to see some Painted Turtles up but there were none. The rocks along the edge of the water are great snake spots in the morning but it was much too hot by now. However, close inspection revealed a pretty Water Snake in the grassy reeds on the other side of a spillway. I like the way the plant frond looks like a long droopy tongue.

We made our way back to a flipping spot that we'd passed by in the morning to get to the tree. A small American Toad stopped on some star-moss for a lovely shot.

I lifted some bark back there and saw an orange belly slipping away and made a blind grab... managed to safely secure our third Ringer of the day for a photo.

We were back to the car now. Andrea had to visit the facilities and got talking to the rangers. I decided to take one last peek at the fallen tree area. There were no Rat Snakes over there so on the way back to Andrea, I swung by the house again and noticed a massive, rough-scaled skin that hadn't been there before. Interesting. That made me go back to the tarp... just in case.

The Ringneck was still there and this Garter was under it.

Upon comparing labial and parietal scales, I deduced that this is a different Garter than the pissed off one from a couple of hours earlier.

I met back up with Andrea and we had a good conversation with the rangers. They plan on leaving the tree as-is for now and moving it over next to an older fallen part later on. They're an excellent group of people there.

So, hot damn. We had nine species. Not too shabby! But we still had a little more juice so we went to another spot about three miles away where we'd seen Milk Snakes and had removed a half dozen Painter hatchlings from a spillway a couple of years ago.

There was only one thing in the spillway... a large Bullfrog who would have no problem finding it's way out the other end. Tenth species on the day, by the way.

I was standing near the water's edge looking out for turtles and stuff when a small Green Frog hopped into the tall grass in front of me. I didn't think I had any kind of shot but tried anyway. I ended up with one of my favorite photos of the day!