Just Another sipedon Sunday. 5-17-2026

We had plans on getting to the Raynham Flea fairly early on Sunday morning so I could sell a batch of comics to my friend before hitting some critter spots. We made it there at about 8:30 AM, I traded much loved but time-to-move comics for a wad of cash, then we headed into Plymouth County to an old fallen down mill site to look for snakes. I also wanted to film a few clips for an upcoming band video I'm making.

We got there around 10 AM and it was already plenty hot and sunny. A bog that sits in front of the mill-site had a few critters in it, but only this Painted Turtle was content to be photographed.

It was already quite warm and we flipped tons of stuff but eventually came to the conclusion that most snakes were already up and at 'em. I got some nice footage for the video but we were snakeless until I flipped our First of the Year Ringneck. But, does this wee lil bugger even count? HELL YES!

#53, an Eastern Phoebe, posed nicely for me.

We'd spent plenty of time filming and flipping and were done with the dilapidated building portion of the hike, so we walked along the bog in front of the place. We stumbled into Bullfrog Land.

There were a few boards next to the bog and we flipped them. It wasn't until the last one, that I flipped and saw nothing until a Garter magically appeared, that we had any luck. I grabbed it, got bitten and musked but we corralled it for some decent photos. Stubby! No dorsal stripe!

Stinking of musk, I hit the pond on the way back to the car to wash up. Waiting down there was the day's first Water Snake, swimming along the edge. Beautiful specimen!

Bullfrog tadpoles took umbrage at my musk-cleaning. That's a side-eye for sure.

We got to the car and I noted that I'd left my window down with thousands of dollars in cash hidden under the seat. Oops. We drove to the other side of the bog to check out the main spot which is often good for Water Snakes and Musk Turtles. (We call it... Musk Spot. I never said we were clever.) Off the dam, there were thousands of Herring doing what they do... swarming.

We didn't see any turtles or snakes... until we did. All of a sudden, Water Snakes were popping up everywhere, just like they would in a happy dream!

 < Note the Herring, too.

We crossed the street to try our luck over there with Musks. I walked along the edge and wasn't having much luck. A piece of plastic wrapping blew in front of me, or so I thought. It was the shiny clear wings of a Dusky Clubtail. Pretty lil one.

Finally, I saw a shell a few feet out and stepped in to retrieve our First of Year Musk Turtle. It was not happy with me at all.

It took quite a while before it emerged from it's shell (a little) for a nicer photo.

Walking back towards the car, I looked into the bog and saw the dumbest looking Bullfrog face I'd ever seen. I waved Andrea over as I fumbled with the camera. I finally realized that it was a Snapper face! Sadly, it only stayed up for one blurry picture but even that captures the funny face.

After that, we headed over to another dilapidated mill site to look for more turtles and Water Snakes but the water level was very low and we saw nothing except a Turkey Vulture (#54) soaring above us.

From there, after getting more drinks, we headed over to a nearby spot in Bristol County where we could flip picnic table parts and sometimes see Milks. No snakes at the flipping site and we were getting pretty toasted anyway. We turned back to go home but stopped by the pond long enough to get a shot of this young Painter really enjoying the sun.

Not a bad day at all. I made some dough, saw some animals (two more FoYs and two more birds!) and we got filthy, hot and stinky, the way we were meant to be. I treated us to Mandarin Buffet after.

A good day indeed.

A Rare Nice Saturday! 5-16-2026

WHAT??? Nice weather on a weekend? BOTH DAYS?? Well I'll be! Flabbergasting! With plans for a trip to Bristol County on Sunday, we kept it closer and headed to a spot in Norfolk County for that Saturday. We got there at about 10:30 AM and were ushered into overflow parking. Not a good sign for this often human-infested place. We talked to the guy directing cars in the field and got him to talk about frogs, so we were doing things OUR way.

We started things off on a very good note when we saw a chubby American Toad right next to the visitor's center.

What a handsome fella!

The was some glamour photography going on near the stream but I made my way back there anyway. No snakes or frogs, though the photographer and model had seen a "big black snake". Ah, Nerodia heaven. We saw none, but I got my own glamour shot of some Marsh Violets next to the stream.

About 10 feet from the model, I saw a good sized Water Snake slithering into the rocks. Missed it. That gaffe was more than made up for when I got to the edge of the pond and photographed our First of Year Pickerel Frog!

Not far from him (watch out!) was a pretty red Water Snake.

Out on the archipelago, there were more frogs! Another Pickerel and two Greens!

The Barn Swallows (#50) are nesting again in the little stone cabin.

We needed a Bullfrog to complete the Big Three Frogs here and this monolith turned up, only our second Bull on the year! He might have to count for more. A beast.

S is for Salamander. A curvy Redback.

A rain-drain culvert that often has Garter neonates crawling in it during the Autumn months came through with a last-year's-model who was in the blue.

We'd seen some Painted Turtles but they were too far away to get decent shots. I figured we'd see more. Up at a good Ringneck spot, we both flipped some Redbacks.

No Ringnecks but this stump covered with Termites was cool. And it gave me some frissons.

We did the high-road/ low-road thing and the only cute thing I was was on the low road!

Once we joined up again, we got a good shot of a Yellow Warbler (#51), my first in a couple of years.

We finally got to a better spot for turtles. Many of our usual turtle photo spots were either underwater (the ponds were pretty full) or close to humans so when we got to the far side, we finally saw some shootable distant turtles. The first shot was of a group of Painted Turtles with an absolute unit of a Red-belly, our First of the Year.

That guy is just massive!

A guy walking his dog stopped so I could get this handsome Water Snake's portrait. Thank you, sir.

Another pair of Painters.

Back towards the front, we started seeing Water Snakes aplenty, usually not far from oblivious humans. I'm glad we know how to look.

GOSLINGS!!!

We ended the hike with one last Bullfrog, doubling our previous best Bull-day on the year (which was... one).

So, we ended the day with nine species. I'd told the parking guy earlier that we were hoping for double digits but I can't complain at all. Plus, three birds were added. (My Gray Catbird shot isn't worth sharing.) We left sweaty, tired and filthy, just how we want to be after a good hike.

A+ day.

Mother's Day is for the Birds. 5-10-2026

Finally, a day that wasn't supposed to suck. We made it through Saturday's porchfest... playing for 2 hours in the cold and rain. Sunday was Mother's Day and it was supposed to be a little bit sunny and scraping 60°. We went to the same spot as last week because one year, we had two Mother's Day Milk Snakes there. Spoiler alert... we did not do that this year.

In fact, we walked for quite a while before I even took my lens cap off. Eventually, I could see a snake in the path about 20 feet up. We quickly (but softly) went up and saw a Water Snake in the path.

Unsure if it was alive or run over by some shitslice on a bike, I went right up to it to look and, startled, it squiggled like a Two-lined Salamander, unable to get purchase on the gravel, then like a shot, it slithered into the  brush. Yup. Very much alive!

We got up to the river, watching birds and keeping an eye out for more snakes. At the river, I went up onto the train tracks and saw some Painted Turtles on the other side.

We rested, watching the birds on the edge of the river. I photographed this guy which turns out to be a Least Sandpiper, a species I'd never photographed before, thus making it #45 on the year and Lifer #206. Not bad!

#46, a Lesser Yellowlegs.

A Savannah Sparrow (#47) was taking a bath in front of us.

Andrea heard a Killdeer and her Merlin seconded it but I couldn't see anything. Finally, I saw some movement on the other side of the water. I couldn't get a good shot but I got a shot of #48, the unmistakable Killdeer.

Heading back out, the answer to "what was that bird" for the last two weeks was discovered... a Northern Flicker, who looks totally different in flight, landed in a tree and gave us #49. A 5 bird day!

We went over to Andrea's Mom's house and spent Mother's Day with her and on the way home, it was still around 60°, so we pulled over at a bus stop on a busy street in Roslindale and flipped a piece of broken cement and saw two snoozing Garters. Such an odd place, but it often pays off.

Of course we had to move them to put the cement back. The little one just sleepily sat there, then went back under while the larger one sprayed me with a massive blast of musk. You know, no problem. First musking of the year and as bad as it smelled, it was OK by me. Plus, I had it coming.

Not a bad day after all.