Mission Viperidae 5-3-2015

My friend Ryan had a plan... gather up as many interested parties, pool our knowledge and hit the trails of the Blue Hills in hopes of finding the elusive venomous snakes that supposedly live there. Many eyes means more chances. Long in the planning stages, we were delighted when Sunday, May 3rd was going to be the best weather of the year so far in 2015. A meeting place was set up at 10 AM.

Everyone showed up on time. Steve, both Matts, Teá and Ryan. Except us. Me, old school Mike, decided to let Gladys, the talking GPS on Andrea's phone, handle the directions. Oops. Unable to connect. So we called Teá who sent us directions that didn't arrive until later. We drove over in the general direction instead of wasting more time... telling the others to move on without us. A couple of wrong turns, some confusion on  my addled brain, and then we saw the others' cars parked. So, true to form, we started up the wrong trail.

Good things happen to those who are dumb sometimes. We stumbled across our first American Toad of the year on the wrong trail.

A real looker!


The phone started working and Teá had started back down the mountain to find us. I felt horrible that she had to help out the lost old man and his wife but she's a fine person and never made me feel like a fossil. We flipped a few Redbacks while we staggered around, like this stunning Leadback.


Teá filled us in on what we had missed... they found the suspected Timber den and there was a fat, black, keel-scaled snake outside it. A Water Snake, who proceeded to confetti musk everyone involved! I'm sorry to have missed that. We headed upward.


We continued up the hill with the news that the others had found a nice Racer. They sure had. When we joined them, Ryan still had it on hook for us to enjoy.

A good sized one.

It took to a tree when we released it.



While we were photographing the tree-snake, Ryan called down that he had another Racer!

This one was a bit smaller and loved being handled by Andrea and Teá, but bit me right on the moon in my tattoo. Bloody Moon.


We carried on over the hill and got to a small paved area above the reservoir. The Matts were chasing a small Racer on the side of a slippery hill... no easy feat but they accomplished it. Matt S got a good bite right on the thumb for his efforts.

The snake posed like a champ.



Wow... I think I got three Racers photographed total in 2014. Just tied that!

I explored the hill up top while most of the others moved on. Tree Swallows were all around and I wanted a shot. (I eventually got one) By the time I joined up with the others at water-side, I had missed another toad. Ryan called from the woods that he saw another Racer. I ran up but we couldn't find the snake again. Meanwhile, the others had seen two Racers mating... right there on the beach; a serpentine From Here to Eternity right before their eyes!

They stayed engaged as they slid into a wood pile.


Ryan and I arrived late but he spotted yet another Racer (possible one of the mating pair but it was decided it wasn't) and pulled it up for a photo.

I flossed my teeth with him.


The group headed across the street to try to find a different den spot, a suspected Copperhead one. We realized we were heading in the wrong direction and turned back but not before we spotted a Spotted!


We headed over to a different parking area. Everyone got there on time except me, who missed a turn. Everybody had to patiently wait while the geezer found his way again. Shit, I was feeling my age, despite the fun I was having. No wonder everyone wanted to see me pick up the Racers; they enjoyed watching me get bitten.

One of the spots we all know about on the way up this particular hill is the Bullfrog Pond... massive Bulls live here and sure enough, they were present again.



We made it up to the suspected spot and looked around but came up empty. We started to think about food, too. We'd been climbing and hiking for quite a few hours and stomachs were empty. So, we headed down for a bite to eat.

On the way back, I took a path that went by a stream while the others went on the regular path. No sooner had I hit water than I heard Matt M yell, "Mike, Racer!" So I hauled it up to where they were and saw a pricker-pile that was said to have some Racers in it. One came out and we all scrambled for it. I finally got my hands on it and it bit the living fuck out of me.

Andrea, amused by my pain, even filmed some of the search for the other one.


I put that one down, and looked for the other. I thought Ryan had caught the other one but he had recaptured Bitey. I pulled the smaller one out of the prickers and we got our Racer Boys promo shot!

It was all fun and games until Bitey put the bite on the other Racer!


We headed to the cars, sweaty and bloodied and found a couple of Redbacks on the way.


We got some grub and relived our day... Viper Mission didn't produce the targets but the Racers kept us all happy and we had a great time. Friends herping together is always so awesome and I'm really proud to be a part of such a good group. At lunch, Matt decided to hitch a ride back with us... and a quick walk through part of Fowl Meadow.

It was after 6 PM and shadows were getting long. Matt spied this Garter in the water near shore.


We saw one other Garter but it handed me my ass as I lunged for it... it just disappeared into the ground at some tree-roots.

Andrea fared better when she saw this battle-scarred Dekay's Snake on the edge of the path, half concealed in leaves.

A first for this spot for us!

Our first non-shoestring Dekay's of the year too!

She followed that up with another, smaller DK!



So that wrapped up a great weekend of herping! Great times spent with good friends. Yes, I felt my age a few times and felt bad that I might have been hindering everyone's success but in the end, I think we all had fun and people are still talking to me, so...

Dare we do double digits in 2015? 5-2-2015

The weekend was supposed to be sunny. Saturday in the mid-60s. My plans kinda fell through so we rearranged them and hooked up with Matt S and Teá and headed to Bristol County. Our goal? Herps. Duh!

We got there a bit after 11 AM and hit the trails. We never know exactly how this particular park will be. Did it fare the winter as well as the nearby Boyden? The answer is yes; it is just as we left it. We were greeted in the parking lot by this lovely Mourning Cloak.

Much to Teá's delight, there were many moths and butterflies about.

This place is the most toad-centric one in our usual rotation. But we saw none. We fouled out on Fowler's. We slammed it with Redbacks to start off, though.




As I was approaching a sandy, pondside area, we heard Matt yell "turtle". He greeted us with this wee Painted!

Then he went into the whole Alas poor Yorick monologue...


After the show, we saw another Redback before heading down to Middle Pond.


At the pond, there were millions of these little black tadpoles.

Of course, first thought is toad or wood frog but upon closer inspection, some have feathery gills.

Newt? We've never seen them here, but who knows? The jury is still out on this one.

Hey hey hey... we were all ready for our first of year Bullfrog!


At another spot on the edge of the pond, an oddly patterned Pickerel was hiding out.


Lo and behold, another hatchling, over-wintered Painter!



Another massive Bullfrog.


But where were the toads? And snakes? It was warm and sunny. We headed up the trail, leaving Matt scouring the pond's edge. It was then that we found our first snake of the day, a lovely, cinnamon spotted Garter!

We yelled for and phoned Matt to let him know.


He totally stole my thunder when he arrived with a very stinky Musk Turtle in hand. First of the year!

Great find!



We got to a stretch in between two ponds and it was, as it often is, flooded. Our first herp here was this small frog that, in the field, we thought was a Green. But it's a small Bullfrog.

This Bullfrog tadpole is almost as big as him!


There was a shit-ton more of the tiny tadpoles in this section.


Where were the adult turtles? Peering through the brush, we spied two Painted Turtles.


Large hole with dead fish in the entrance... the lair of an otter?


We got down to get a good look at the water of the far side of the pond and were rewarded with some basking shells... in fact, our first Red-bellied Cooter of the year was spotted!

Here's another angle of the Cooter/ Painter duo. Double yoga.


Further up, another massive Red-bell and dozens of Painteds.



Check out this precarious stacking job-


Then, up on shore, we saw this plump female who looks like she's ready to pop.



So, we pushed on to a nice, moving stream... which Matt plopped right through (he and I had been sporting complete soakers since the beginning) to the other side, where he promptly flipped a feisty Garter!



Another spot yielded us another Bullfrog and some basking Painted Turtles.



We were walking back to the beginning when we passed a spot that I had forgotten about... a small vernal where we had seen a few frogs and snakes last year. When we got there, we startled some turtles into the drink but many of them kept resurfacing, including mine and Andrea's first Snapper of the year!

My photo of him was blurry so I'm borrowing this one: Photo by Teá Kesting-Handly.

I waded into the pond up to my knees in order to get this Green Frog shot, which is good because it turned out to be our First of Year!


We backtracked after that, hitting a few spots for a second time. Our favorite spot that is full of debris got us a wee garter, found by Matt.



We saw a couple of Bullfrogs in the bog on the way out...


and then went for Mandarin Buffet for the second week in a row.

After we ate, I figured "why not check out Oliver Mills?" So we did. It was getting late... about 5:30, 6 PM but it was still warm. Matt spied a Water Snake noggin peeking out from a stone wall. But it was below us. He took a twig and while we hung over the edge, he tried to poke the snake forward. Eventually, it worked... the little noggin poked out... another couple of inches, and right into my hands! Teamwork!

He was a dusty little fella so we gave him a bath.



The Herring were running as well.


A bit further up, we flipped a teeny Dekay's Snake which we used to teach some young kids that snakes are cool.



So this was a pretty good day! That was 11 species not including the tadpoles. Just to keep things interesting, we really surprised ourselves with a flipped Two-lined Salamander right on the edge of the fish-filled, rapid-running water.


An even dozen or lucky 13, this was a memorable day. We drove home, exhausted and happy. But where were the toads?!