And So Ends June. 6-27th and 28th, 2026

Good weather was predicted and I had a hankerin' to see a Wood Turtle or two. On Saturday, we got up early, ate on the road and got out into Middlesex County shortly after 8 AM. Yay us! Surely the Wood Turtle Gods would be smiling on us this day! Well, maybe not. But even if they didn't, we had some exploring to do.

Heading in, I kept my eyes open for things to flip because we'd had a Redbelly Snake here before and we were still on the search for our first of 2026. (So weird, in the middle of New York State, where I grew up, they were everywhere!) The flipping paid off when I got a Spotted Newt, our first ever at this place. Efty Efty Efty!

With gratification not quite as instant as last week with the Green, I found a Redbelly under some bark. We tried to tame it (unsuccessfully) in Andrea's hat.

The obligatory in-hand shot where you can see the belly.

First-of-Year!

These Ebony Jewelwings were plentiful but I wasn't able to get a shot with their brilliant blue abdomens showing... they always covered it with their wings as I clicked. Still, a beautiful damselfly.

We weren't having much luck with turtles even though we were giving the woods and the dry vernal a pretty good sweep. I headed towards the river and scared up a pair of small Green Frogs.

We checked out a number of new (to us) paths and still had no turtles but at 963% humidity, we sure had sweaty clothes. We rested on a stone in the shade. A nice older (my age) couple came and sat with us and we talked for a while. They'd mentioned a part of the place where they always see snakes and told us how to find it. Funny... we've passed it a number of times but never noticed it. After our rest/ talk, Andrea and I headed over to this hidden-in-plain-sight area. We saw no snakes (the sun would be too high and hot by this time) but it looks perfect and I did see what appear to be Racer eggs under a log.

We'll have to hit this spot first on our next visit.

Well, no turtles at the first stop but we had more lined up. The second spot is fairly new to us and we were eager to look around. We had a lot of time to do so but still wound up with no turtles. We did, however, see an American Toad...

... and a Redback that posed for what might be my cutest ever Redback shot.

We had one more stop in mind but we got some pizza and drink first. Then headed to a spot we'd discovered a couple of years ago. We'd not seen Wood Turtles there but it looks perfect. So we headed in, not remembering the trails. Oops.

Yeah, we got pretty lost for a while but saw lots of great habitat and birds. We saw/ heard a Raven, and a Piliated Woodpecker but got no shots of either. Some cool plants too, like this Pipsissewa, not the coolest looking flowering plant ever but it sure has the best name!

While lost, Andrea pointed out a shine ("probably a mylar balloon") that turned out to be a Painted Turtle in the river... our only turtle on the day.

My last photo of the day is a head scratcher. This woodpecker was making a real racket about 50 feet away. Spot on tail... Downy. Chest spurs... Hairy. A little smaller than a Robin... Downy, but a big one. Hell, I could go either way. I posted in a Facebook group and got a split decision. I'm keeping it in Camp Downy. A female, either way.

So that was our Saturday. The good news is, we got home earlier than expected because of our early start. But it was another Wood failure on my part, though the Redbelly makes up for it. Six species (and a missed frog at one point) is pretty good, though, and we must have lost some tonnage with all of the sauna-like hiking we did (over six miles).

On Sunday morning, we were unsure of what we'd be doing. Due to gas prices this year, I'm only allowing us one longer trip per weekend and that was the day before. I wanted to see some turtles and chose a favorite hike in Norfolk County. We'd just been there a few weeks ago but it's such a beautiful place...

It was off and on cloudy when we got there. Our first sighting was a robust Redback.

I'd said on the drive there, "I want to see some Garter Snakes today." I guess I got my wish when we hit the dam... there was one on the other side of a bush but I couldn't get a good shot.

Many Water Lilies were decorating the pond's edge. Two different species here.

Water Snakes started showing up. Some of the big females were warming their internal babies up.

^^ That last shot is two snakes, not one massive one.

What of the turtles I wanted to see? Well, the place had overgrown a lot since our last visit so it wasn't as easy this time. I saw a big Spotted Turtle (the size of you average Painter) that slipped into the drink and didn't see any more until we saw some Painters amongst the lily pads.

A little turtle and a LOT of lily pads!

A small Spotted spotted in a spot about 30 feet away.

Last sight on the dam, another Water Snake. She had plenty of red but my shitty camera-work didn't capture that.

We'd talked on the way up remembering when we used to turn around after the dam. Haha... such newbies! But with the sun up now and the luck we'd had, we considered doing it this time. Plus, our legs were still rubber from the day before. But I made the decision to go for it... do the whole 4 1/2 miles. I wanted to see the Hobo Camp and Ringneck Hill.

It might not have been my greatest decision because we walked right past the path that leads to the Hobo Camp and I found zilch on Ringneck Hill. Some fartface had stacked some of the hill's best stones into a short stone wall, too. But persistence (stupidity?) paid off when we got back close to the pond and a big (over two feet) Garter gal sat there posing for us.

A pretty close-up. Looks like I finally got my wish.

Over by the swimming area (thankfully empty except for two teens cleaning up a bit), a bight striped Garter was in 5 O'clock Charlene's place.

That was our last critter but I did take a shot of this massive patch of what we call Corpse Flowers, but are also known as Indian Pipes, Ghost Plant or even Monotropa uniflora. They're cool because they have no chlorophyl and they are parasitic to fungus (I always thought they were fungus).

Another super-hot one for us and we headed home soaked with sweat but happy with the things we'd seen. We made the whole hike and felt pretty good about that. Showers and an hour or two in bed later in the afternoon also felt pretty good.

Springing Into Summer. 6-20 & 21-2026

A book sale in Northampton. About 100 miles each way. Well, I'm stupid enough to try that but only if we make some nature stops while out there. We got a later-than-hoped-for start so visiting the Magic Tree on the way out to Hampden County wasn't in the cards but we did hit a stream once we got there to poke around a little before viewing books. We still needed a Dookie (Northern Dusky) on the year. This would be our last outing of the Spring of 2026.

The stream was happily gurling when we parked next to it and we started flipping some (easy) rocks. First up was a Two-lined larvae. Lookit those cute gill-frills!

A Wood Frog hopped into a nice, photogenic position.

Andrea was up top on dry land as I was trudging through the water so I took this other Two-lined larvae up to show her, unsure at the time if I had a Dook or a Two-line.

Persistence paid off and I finally netted our First of Year Dookie!

I can still hear the son I never wanted saying "I've never heard of anyone targeting Duskies before."

We took a peek around a pond before heading to the book sale. Sadly, there were no turtles up basking due to noisy kids on trails around the pond, but the good Water Snake spot paid off. I could see this body warming in the sun.

So, we went into town, looked at books, bought some books, got lunch and headed back to the reservation. We hit the vernal area where we often see tons of amphibians but it was overgrown and the water level must have been super low. We did hear a few Bullfrogs rumbling but never got close to the water. We did, however, uncover our First of Year Eft! As the only critter we saw down there, it made us quite happy.

We drove in to an area that we'd hit before and decided to hike up to some ruins that we'd been to before but thought it cool enough to see again. (Our previous write-up with a link to the history of the ruins is here.) The way up was lovely; dappled sunlight and a sweet breeze. One flipped log got us a dark Leadback and another Eft.

There was quite a lot of Mountain Laurel growing along the sides of the (broken pavement) path.

My granddaughter is big into things that live under rocks, isopods in particular, and she said she liked millipedes as well but had never seen a Giant. I took this photo for her and figured I'd put it here, too.

Looking back at that post from the last time we did this hike, I now notice that it was not only twelve years ago, but many pounds ago. Our chubby selves started to feel a bit tired and tried to remember just how far this hike was! Eventually, we got towards the top and, in time to give us a needed burst of excitement, we flipped an American Toad.

The ruins, as remembered, are very cool. It was a nice place to rest.

The walk back down was much shorter and quicker. Andrea startled a small Garter that was digesting in the path. Getting a decent picture just wasn't going to happen.

We'd hiked over 6 miles (that included the walk around the book sale and our Northampton pizza-quest) and were suitable toasted by the time we reached the car. The drive home was a long one and we felt great relief when we got home. I actually went out to watch some friends' bands that night. Wow! Andrea was smart and was in her jammies by 5 PM.

The next morning, getting out of bed for an early hike just wasn't in the cards. It was the first day of Summer and we did make it out eventually and found ourselves at a spot in Norfolk County that we call Green Snake Place. Such a strange spot, a trash filled, rocky few acres of woods and grassy fields that gives us our best chances at Greens.

Walking in, we hit a cross-path and I said to Andrea "this is the spot we've seen them on the crawl twice" and walked on. Andrea, however, said "here's one".

I'll be goddamned. And she's massive (about 18"?) and clearly gravid.

Instant gratification is such a sweet thing.

It should be noted that three days after this sighting, my pal Ryan and his friend found three such Greens here. Hopefully, that means there will be a lot of babies!

A Carolina Rose.

We split up and did the high-road/ low-road thing and met up at our usual spot. I peeked down over the side from the top and saw a Garter sliding in between rocks.

Then Andrea saw this bright grey-stripe Garter heading in the same direction.

Heading out, we moved closer to the Harbor to look for crabs and perhaps a Deke or another Garter. The place is filled with Asian Shore Crabs, an introduced species. Yes, invasive, but it's not like they came in with torches and guns and took over. Some asswipe boat dude probably dumped out a few buckets of offal many moons ago and that included these crabs. They are, however, pushing our native Green Crabs out and that's not good. But they are pretty cool, especially when they climb my shoe.

Our last sight of the weekend was a gelatinous blob on the shore. Having seen The Blob (1958) many times, I knew not to poke it. Andrea did, with a stick. It is a dead jellyfish but it could probably still sting you if there are tentacles under it. Still, a cool and weird sight.

So, that was an exhausting but very fun three-day weekend! Fifteen species of reptile and amphibian, three of them FoYs! Add to that the birds, the bugs, the sea life and flowers and we're talking a memorable long weekend. And a good welcome to Summer.

Celebrating Juneteenth in the Field. 6-19-2026

Andrea had the holiday off and we wanted to spend the day in nature. We got up early, ate on the road and headed to Plymouth County to hopefully see a Hognose Snake. Or a Redbelly. Or a Green. Or anything, really. Well, we did ourselves proud by getting there pretty early and hit the bogs first.

Our first sight was a Virgin Moth on a leaf. Maybe not WOW to everybody, but it looked cool to us.

The bog area was very good to us. There were nesting Painted ladies and Bullfrogs. ♫ These are a few of my fay-vo-rite things! ♫

We couldn't believe that there were four turtles up nesting in such a small area!

The bees are back. We walked very cautiously past that area.

At our usual sit-down-and-rest spot that overlooks a pond, a little Painted friend was in the shallow end as we sat there. It's always nice to share some time with a turtle.

No Hogs at that stop but taking the high road back to the car, we saw this Racer warming it's body up.

In case you can't see it's doofy face peeking through the brush, here is a close-up.

Weird. For three years straight, I couldn't get my camera on a Racer and had very few sightings at all. Now we have four so far this year. Believe me, I'm super happy about that.

Next stop was an often heart-breaking path where we've seen plenty of Hogs over the years, but none for at least the last two. A Painter on the other side of the (very low) pond wished us luck.

While walking the trail, I commented on how weird it was to have seen more Racers than Ringnecks so far on the year. We got to a spot where I have had Ringers and Redbellies hiding under bark and I started peeking. I lifted some bark on a log and lost a Ringneck who easily evaded my grasp and my camera. Bummer.

A different piece of bark yielded a better result. I picked it up and there was a pile of Ringnecks! I scooped up what I could to take over to the path and show Andrea. She said "put them in my hat" like we sometimes do with little ones for a photo. The snakes did not want to cooperate.

I don't know if we started with four or five but by the time I had a bouquet of Ringers to return to the log, there were four.

Another piece of bark held a Giant Leopard Moth pupa as well as a small keeled-scale snake skin, probably a Redbelly.

An interesting piece of art, courtesy of nature.

We went to the next stop in hopes of seeing some turtles, especially Redbellies. This is the best spot we know for them. First, however, I had to stop and get a shot of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird (#65) conveniently sitting on a wire.

So, were there any Redbellies? Oh hell yes!

While going for a better angle on the turtles, I got distracted by a noggin coming up the steps.

This is the first Milk we've ever seen in the park proper, though we've had some at places just outside.

She is thicc... pretty sure she is gravid.

Back to more Redbellies, which were piling up everywhere!  

A distant Wood Duck.

Heading out on the archipelago, some Painters were basking. But note the two noggins poking up, looking to climb up and upset the apple cart!

A small Painter wondering what all of the fuss was about.

Another couple of Redbellies. Hey, if we're not going to see Redbellied Snakes, we might as well enjoy all of the chelonian red-bells!

It was still very early afternoon thanks to our early departure but having hiked over six miles, we were getting a bit weary and it was time to depart. I managed to add another couple of birds to the year count on the way out... American Goldfinch (#66, tying last year's final count)...

... and breaking last year's count with a speedy Wild Turkey (#67).

Funny, we had a great day and still missed the targets we came for. I mean, a three snake species day in Massachusetts is pretty damn good! I'd rather see lots of things than see just one target and that has happened plenty of times. One bad note... we saw no toads. This place is usually hopping with toads but we saw zero. That would affect our Hog chances, too. It is a worrisome situation mostly because toads are awesome and we usually see tons of Fowler's and the occasional American. Let's hope it was just one bad day for them and our next trip will be toaderiffic.