My, But That Ended Early 10-26-2025

We're not going to see much more this year. We went over to the dens to see if anything was up despite temps in the low 50s. In the sun, things might be brave. Well, my timing might have been off (wouldn't be the first, or even hundredth time this year) but no snakes were up. We did manage a couple of Redbacks and a Spotted, though, which is never a bad thing.

Goodbye, October. You sucked. And now on to even suckier months.

Whittling Down the Year. 10-19th and 22nd, 2025

It's the time of year when you have to take what you can get and every sighting might be your last of that particular species. We headed to a spot in Middlesex County where one October day we had about 30 snakes, mostly Garters, a few Water Snakes and Ribbons. Of course, we've never come close to repeating that but we still keep it in mind. We were in no hurry to get there as it was cold and we waited for the sun to come up. We got there noonish.

We didn't see much right away and the water levels were quite low. It wasn't until the second pond that we saw a bunch of small Bullfrogs in the edge water.

Further out on that pond, some distant Painters were basking. The sun was up and we were in shirt sleeves by now.

This guy had a caterpillar (Banded Tussock Moth?) caterpillar photobombing that I didn't notice until uploading the shot.

A few more, feeling fabulous.

A couple of huge Green Frogs were sitting next to the water. First, a female and next a male showing a massive tympanium.

We ended the day with a couple more Bullfrogs.

So, no snakes but still a handful of critters that we will not be seeing in a couple of months.

We woke up Tuesday morning (October 21st) and got Andrea ready for work. It was pouring rain. She mentioned how it looked like good Ambystoma weather out. I agreed. And by 2 PM, when the sun was poking out, I was ready to go see if she was correct. I hate to cheat on her while she's at work but it was too nice to be faithful, so I went to our den-spot to poke around.

First log flip, early in the Valley, got me a good sized Redback. Off to a good start.

Towards the back of the Valley, I flipped the first Spotted Salamander (maculatum) that I've seen at this place in a few years. Small but chubby.

None of the den-sites had shown me anything but then, crawling below one, was this good looking Garter who was also poking around. First October Garter for me.

Out at the Cottonwood den, a dark, slim Garter was out... until it saw me and vanished.

I looked at the Rock Wall den, looked for Joe at the bridge, looked up at Robles' den and saw nothing else. Circling back, the new Old Faithful log had a Redback under it.

Then, up at the rocks near the cemetery, I scored a Blue-spotted with bonus Redback.

Then, the next rock had a two-pack of Blues. A nice way to end the day.

What do you know... Andrea was right. It was a good salamander day. I feel no remorse for cheating. I needed to get out into the woods and away from this computer that shows me the badness in the world every day. I need to be in nature where I can only see the goodness (mostly).

Octobrrrr... 10-11-2025

The season is hanging on by a thread. We'd already had a hard frost two days before but we wanted to have a nature walk. Why not just hit the local spot, take an extended hike and see if anything is up. Surely we'd get at least a salamander or two.

We did just that, up by Robles' den. A flip of asphalt got us a four pack of Redbacks... with a fifth sneaking into a crack in the rock.

The next rock had just one loner.

Down in the Valley, I was happy to see our first October 2025 snake, a large Water Snake peeking out of the den entrance. Yes, I guess they are back, as they should be.

Gee, I hate to be boring with Redbacks, a species some "herpers" don't even count, but I love them and this guy was about 4 inches long... a beast!

A bit later, I went to flip a log that broke in half. Nestled inside was a Blue-Spotted.

We checked all of the known den-sites and saw nothing, so we headed towards the attached park. No frogs were out at the first bridge (no Joe!) but at the second bridge, while watching geese and ducks, we noticed a single Painted Turtle trying to catch some rays. Getting ready for Hallowe'en, she is sporting a Bride of Frankenstein 'do.

Out in the attached park, we looked around but the sun had gone behind clouds and it was pretty cool. It never got above 65° all day but with no sun, it was chilly. So, we headed back. I just had to check on the Valley on the way back. The same Water Snake was poking out. It was dark enough by this time that I had to use a flash, exposing some nice red markings.

Last up... more Redback beauty. So there.

That's it. And the rest of the year won't be much more interesting to people who like fancy stuff, but we're satisfied with our local commons. No trips for us this year (or likely ever again because I'm a lay-about) so we get what we get.

I'm really sad that this year ended so abruptly but what can you do? Hopefully, it will be nice enough this coming weekend to get out again and see if any tenacious critters are not yet ready to hang it up. I know I'm not.

Something Blue, Something New. 10-4 & 10-5, 2025

Mercifully, the weather was supposed to be decent for the weekend. We had made plans to see Andrea's mom on Saturday but we decided to check out our local dens on the way there for two reasons. First, to see if anyone is back yet (no evidence). Secondly, we had a massive yellow squash that we wanted to leave in the woods for snacking, having seen a pumpkin get devoured last year but unknown critters.

It was very very dry but Redbacks didn't seem to be worrying about it.

As I said, the dens were unoccupied so after depositing the squash, we walked along the path up to the adjoining park. Our pal Joe the Bullfrog wasn't there, so we went further out. Eventually, we got to a spot where we could see distant Painted Turtles basking.

We had to get going but I wanted to check out some often-rewarding rocks just before we got to the car. Much to our delight, we found (despite the dryness) a couple of Blue-Spotted Salamanders, our first of the year.

Not a bad half hour right there.

The next day, we decided to try a new spot. While watching the Nerodia tug-of-war last week with some other folks, they'd mentioned a spot in Plymouth County that they enjoyed. I did some research during the week, printed a map and we headed over to this new place on Sunday morning.

It is a fairly short hike, just over three miles. It's near the coast and boardwalks traverse a river in two spots. From those boardwalks, we saw plenty of late-season Painted Turtles catching some rays. That's quite an old-timer on the top.

Hoissst!

Smarty pants.

Old-timer and brown shell made no effort to move as we crossed the boardwalk.

There are a ton of bird-blinds, lots of marsh-land and some nice wooded trails as well as field-side trails. But we saw nothing while walking. Still, it was beautiful. Andrea saw a Praying Mantis and I got a funny photo and dedicated it to one of my favorite books.

Before leaving, I got another (very) distant shot of a group of Painters way out on a pond.

It was a successful recon mission and we figure that in April, it will be great with birds and lots of critters. Just not this day. So, we got milkshakes and headed back towards home with the intention of stopping at a reservoir in Norfolk County that we'd not been to this year.

We got there and noticed plenty of change in the two years since our last visit. We were happy, however, to see a few Redbacks early into the hike.

The ponds around the main lake were low but still filled. This Bullfrog was happy enough, anyway.

After that, we took plenty of shaded, wooded trails and then set out across the dam in the blazing sun. Most of the bushes and trees along this path had been downed so I started to realize that Water Snakes and Racers would be unlikely at this time of day (mid-afternoon). We went all the way out, then started back and I could tell by then that Andrea was just doing this only for me. I felt pretty shitty. Well, we made it back to the path that led to the car and feet were draggin'.

All of a sudden, things were good... a Snapling was standing in the middle of the path, head held high and being beautiful.

Nothing will make Andrea happier than a baby Snapper.

We photographed him and then I saved him a few hours by walking him down to a wet, leafy area right next to the pond. He can hide there of bury himself or move on. Lots of opportunities.

A snakeless weekend but a First-of-Year and a new spot scoped out. Better than sitting around looking at a computer. By far.

Falling Into Autumn. 9-27th and 28th, 2025

The first weekend of Fall was forecast as being a dandy one so we made plans to visit "Musk Turtle Spot" in Plymouth County, a place we'd not been able to add on to our Bristol/ Plymouth Tour two weeks earlier. We got an early start and got there at around 10 AM just as the sun was starting to get hot. We decided to check out the flipping areas around the dilapidated mill first thing. We started out strong with a new Water Snake kid.

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.