New Spots and Old Friends July 18th & 19th, 2026

We'd been doing so well with new (to us) places lately that I had become eager to check out another one on this overcast Saturday morning. I had a late evening gig but wanted to get up and out into nature, then back home in the afternoon for a disco nap. I researched a place that is only a few miles from a tried and true (and sometimes tough) place already in out rotation in Middlesex County. If this new one sucked, we could always go to both spots. And that is what we wound up doing.

The sky was smoky again and rain was imminent. The air quality was terrible. Still, we moved forward and got to the new spot in the late morning. True to form, I chose the wrong parking area and it was a couple of miles to the river and pond area. It was a lovely walk but we saw no critters. Until the river. Oops. But then, we saw some Painted Turtles who were also denying the fact that the sun wasn't shining.

That was all we saw on that entire hike, except for some birds flying over the all-but-dry pond area. We moved a few miles down the road to a more familiar spot, a nature refuge. This place also had a low water level but the Yellow Lotus flowers were fully in bloom and that made for a spectacular sight.

We started to realize how lucky we'd been to see some turtles at the other spot because the places here where the water was deep enough to be of interest to turtles was well off the beaten path. A usually good spot for Painted Turtles was low enough to be a good spot for a Water Snake that Andrea spied.

This place has been a bit of a heartbreaker for the past few years. It used to be a major frog spot and a stronghold for Northern Leopard Frogs but something happened a few years ago (treating invasive plants?) that has made it so we see just a couple of frogs, mostly Bulls and Greens, here in a season. On the bright side, we'd heard some Leopards calling on a visit in April, so we kept that in mind. We watched a Common Yellowthroat (#69) calling for a while.

We walked out to a grassy area where Leopards used to be all over the place but scared up nothing. Heading back, we stopped by the river and sat on a bench and had the pleasure of watching a Killdeer foraging along the water's edge and getting within a few feet of us. A rare treat with such a skittish species.

We were walking back to the parking lot and I kept checking for more Water Snakes or a Snapping Turtle or something when this hopped in front of me...

Being a little in front of Andrea, I dramatically said, "Don't ever move again!" She knew exactly what was there.

Now, I know I sound like a madman, but this is incredibly significant to me. The last Leopard Frog on this blog was from April 2024, from Norfolk County. The last one seen at this particular spot was from August 2020. That's almost six years without seeing one at this spot where we used to see dozens on a single hike. We've been lamenting the loss of these beautiful creatures ever since. This was a beautiful, big adult and yes, I'm posting three pictures because it means that much. Hopefully, future hikes will increase the counts and we'll be back to the numbers that used to thrive here.

This made our week.

Yes, I played that night and did OK, despite not going on till almost midnight. I'm too old for that shit. Knowing we'd be sleeping in, we decided to plan on our Green Snake spot for Sunday morning. We'd been there at noon-time before on hot days and done well, but it wasn't in the cards this time out. No snakes. We gathered some sea glass as we walked along, then decided to visit our local cemetery on the way home to see the turtle gang. Our old friends.

From the road, 50 feet away, we could see this massive Red-ear catching some rays. A brute!

At the opposite end of the size-chart, this small Painted Turtle had a prime basking log to himself.

Care to see that face a bit closer?

You're welcome.

This Painter kept hovering about 20 feet out from the shore near us, perhaps waiting for a handout? I'm happy to see that most of the turtles aren't begging this year. It has made me nervous for their safety in the past.

The Snappers were there, but they they were behaving like turtles instead of dogs. That's a good thing.

The resident Yellow-belly is doing just fine and is seen here basking with another Red-ear.

This Red-ear has the big stump all to himself! Lucky turtle!

Another Snapper. It blinked as I snapped the camera. 

This Great Blue Heron was standing perfectly still and straight the entire time we were walking around the pond. That deserved a photo.

We ended on a perfectly gorgeous Red-ear swimming in the rain-stirred water, looking resplendent in their beautifully designed skin. A released pet saying "fuck you, I live here now too" and loving life.

And that was our weekend. But Andrea still had a couple of days off, so we're not done just yet...

It's All Done with Smoke and Turtles. 7-15 and 16, 2026

Our big plan for the day was to go to the Brimfield Antique Show but hit the Magic Tree in Worcester County first. No problem, we've done that many times before and since this was a Wednesday (Andrea's vacation) we knew traffic would not be the problem. Like it usually is. It wasn't bad and with eating on the road, we pulled in to the state forest a little before 8:30 AM. It was a strange drive in, however, because due to wildfires in Canada, there was a cast over the sky and car bumpers had orange light glowing on them.

We first headed to a flipping spot and the first flip had a gorgeous female Garter under it that we watched slowly crawl away without a photo. Oops... not quite awake yet. We soon made up for it with another Garter under a piece of wood. Andrea procured it for an in-hand shot.

Interestingly, when we put it down, it crawled away a little and then had an orange glow on it's head. I couldn't really capture it with the camera, though you can see it a bit on the needles in this shot.

We headed toward the Magic Tree in a moment of instant gratification, we saw a large Rat Snake (first of year) crawling toward it. It zipped inside and was never seen again.

The tree is barely standing. It is now completely split in half and the sides are slipping from each other, leaving a 1 1/2 foot space at the top. Plenty of Rat skins are hanging inside, so they're still using it. The above shot perhaps shows the orange pallor to the sky a bit better than the Garter shots.

As do these shots of completely covered (with duckweed) Painted Turtles basking in the smoky sunlight.

A Pickerel had earlier handed me my ass and avoided my camera but the second one we saw tried to but I was still able to get a voucher shot in a bush.

Up towards the front where the water was less cluttered with duckweed, a much cleaner Painter was basking.

Some bright red Staghorn Sumac was living at the edge of the water.

Before leaving (after about two hours of sweaty, hard-to-breathe hiking) we went back to where the pretty Garter had gone unphotographed in the morning. I was flipping through a tarp and found a small Garter with about 3" of skin left to shed. I picked him up and slid the remaining skin down like a stocking, and imagined a little "pop" as the last tip of tail came free. And that little guy was a badass!

I gave him to Andrea to look at and he made a meal of her!

Things bode well for his future!

Guess who was also in the tarp and proceeded to hand me my ass again...

We went to Brimfield, grateful in a way, for the smoke because it kept the temps under 90°. But we didn't last long, even though we'd found some amazing things. It dawned on us that we might not be able to do both on the same day anymore. That's OK... we had a great time at both places and saw some nice critters.

The next day, Thursday, had a much clearer sky and so we planned a local walk. Because of the energy we used up the day before, we got a late start and that probably hurt our chances. It was pretty hot when we left the house. We decided to stop by "the school" on the way to our destination. No Water Snakes were seen and the water was very low. The adjoining pond had plenty of Painted Turtles up basking in the much cleaner air.

The place is looking pretty litter-filled again and I'm planning another clean-up. Perhaps this week.

Our destination was very hot and no animals were up. We cut it fairly short and the only photo I took was of this Hollow Joe-pye Weed.

But that's not a bad way to start Andrea's vacation! Exercise, animals and nature. The way we like it.

Another New Spot 7-12-2026

It was time to recon another new (to us) spot that isn't too far away in these days of high gas prices. I researched a place about 40 minutes away that is kind of close to a favorite park that we always do well at. We got to this one (in Norfolk County) just as it opened at 9 AM. The sounds of Purple Martins filled our ears and I started taking long distance photos as they are still a "need-it". All of the photos were crap.

We went in and started along the shady trails. It was very interesting because the water and duckweed came right up to the trail. It made it feel very Evergladesey. Much to our delight, we could see a Water Snake through the brush.

There's the noggin!

We got out to a boardwalk, clearly the real draw of this place. Some Painted Turtles were up basking.

We saw this Snapper at the surface, foraging for snacks. We watched it for quite some time, chomping lily pads and skimming the surface. A pretty big turtle, that one.

Not far away was this smaller specimen who made itself known by snapping at something. This made for double the pleasure and we watched these two for a good twenty minutes.

A guy came by and said he saw a massive Snapper further out. We pointed out our big guy and he said "oh, mine is twice that size." Always one-upping. What is it with people? We moved on before he started talking about his nether-regions.

Andrea found a gorgeous Garter Snake who either just had a snack or has little ones in her belly.

We got back onto the trail and enjoyed a lovely walk. We sat on a bench overlooking the pond with a gaggle of Canada Geese right behind us, preening. I looked out and saw a dark strip in the water, zoomed out and got this shot.

It appears to be 27 Painted Turtles, my personal best on the year so far.

Another gathering of picta.

As wonderful as the whole hiking area was, that boardwalk was the best and we went back. This solo Painter greeted us.

We went back to where Andrea had seen the Garter earlier and she'd been joined by a smaller guy, also with something in its belly though definitely not babies. They made a "T".

With my ears always open, I heard someone say the S-word... they had a Snapper nearby. We went over to look and there was an absolute monolith of a Snapper there. It looked to be twice the size of our earlier big guy. Perhaps braggart-man had been telling the truth! This is the best shot I got but it might have been the largest Snapping Turtle I've ever seen.

This much smaller one was foraging.

This little Painter had a nice sunny spot to itself.

We finally moved on and went through a sunny field filled with flowers. There was a large patch of Black-eyed Susans peppered with Daisy fleabane.

After a short rest, we went across the street where more trails went around another pond. Unfortunately, it wasn't as critter-filled as the other side. This solo Painter is the only animal shot I got in over two miles of hiking.

This fungus (either Cerrena unicolor or Trichaptum biforme, thank you Jef for the suggestion of the latter) looked very cool covering a tree stump.

Back to the parking lot, ready to leave, I finally got my shot of #68, Purple Martins. Lots of 'em.

So, it's safe to say that Andrea has a new favorite spot, Snapper-happy as she is. We'll certainly be heading back to this place before too long. It feels good to say two for two on new nature-walk places this month!