Missing Targets but Kicking Ass. 8-23-2026

It was going to be another overcast morning so we got up early and headed into Plymouth County to try our luck with the elusive Massachusetts Box Turtle. At our destination spot earlier in the year, a guy said he'd seen one and proved it with a photo taken near where we stood. So, at least one Box Turtle is in the area. We knew our chances were slim but we got out early, ate on the road and headed out, getting there early on a crisp morning.

We went through the woods, to a field, then back to some other woods, using every bit of our Box Turtle experience (very little) to seek out signs of them The first critters we saw were Fowler's Toads.

Andrea surprised me and herself when she flipped a small Spotted Salamander!

A good sized Wood Frog was also out hopping around.

But, alas, no Box Turtles. We gave ourselves two miles of searching but came up empty. Upward and onward to the mill area where much flipping was to happen. And did. But by now, the sun had started to think about shining and nobody was under cover anymore. All we wrangled up at that site was an American Toad.

Walking around the front of the mill to carry on in the lake and bog area, a couple pointed out a massive Bullfrog sitting on a board. Could this be the beast that made the splash that we'd heard on our last visit?

Note the healing cut on his back... this is one tough frog!

By the lake, I flipped over a board and saw two things... a small Pickerel Frog...

and what I want to say is a Spiny-cheeked Crayfish. A big one.

The bogs had good water in them and Painted Turtles kept slipping away from my camera. I took this (less than satisfactory) shot from a distance, before they plopped and it turned out to be my only Painter shot of the day!

Then we found where all of the Bullfrogs are this year. We saw dozens of them.

We got into the car to move to a different bog in the same area. Bullfrogs persisted.

We walked over to the dam area where we usually see Water Snakes and Musk Turtles. Since the sun had started to work its way out from behind the clouds, the top layer of the dam was warming and Water Snakes were waking up. I stood on the edge and looked down and saw this gal's big noggin poking out.

We named her Headly.

More Nerodia were peeping out...

Here's Headly from a side angle.

From the edge of the left-hand side, we looked down and saw a Water Snake speeding away.

We looked down to see where she'd come from and saw a Musk Turtle on his back, struggling to get turned over. Poor thing.

We ran down to help, noting that it had made some lovely sand-angels. Andrea got it.

She put it into the water and before long, it zipped off.

Whew!

More Water Snakes were swimming along as we walked along the beach area.

Back to the dam area, we saw that Headly was still there but noticed an even bigger snake right on the other side of the plant!

This guy was scaling the wall like it was a Rat Snake. That's me getting the picture in the reflection.

Ever read B. Kilbans Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head? This Water Snake hasn't.

We walked down the other end of the beach and didn't see any more reptiles or amphibians but the freshwater bivalves were cool and we could see a trail where one had "walked".

Last sight at this spot was another Water Snake! But of course!

We drove over to another area in Plymouth County, but it had started to rain pretty hard so upon arrival, we sat in the car to wait it out. But it only rained harder. I decided to take a run into the spot and look at all of the spots where we'd seen Water Snakes and turtles before but nothing was stirring. I made it back to the car and we headed to a store to shop for a bit.

Upon getting out of the store, it was sunny again so we headed to a flippin' spot nearby. We were now in Bristol County. We got there and proceeded directly to the flipping area and quickly uncovered two Garters. That second one has NO dorsal stripe!

It should be noted that I did see my first shoestring Garter on the year but it was in the grass and disappeared.

We wanted to head to a sandy sunny area to see if any turtles had been hatching. On the way to the trail, I saw this... and had no fucking clue what it was.

My friend Jef told me it was a Conifer Bagworm Caterpillar (thanks, Jef!) and further research showed me that they are pests, but pretty damn cool.

The pond next to the sandy area had the amphibian of the day... a Bullfrog!

This is the place where we've had our Black-eyed Toads but all of the Fowler's that we saw here were normal. As normal as any toads are, anyway.

Back to the parking area, a Bullfrog (naturally) was next to a mud puddle, ready to launch if needed.

We ended the day with a small Pickerel who was mostly noggin!

So, we missed our target but saw ten species of reptile or amphibian again so we're happy and figure we're on a roll! A great day in the field and many miles of hiking with each other. Not a bad Sunday at all!

Andrea's Vacation Begins! 8-21 and 8-22-2026

Yay! Time together! Yay... so many chances to do nature walks! But boo... the first day was cool and rainy. Still, we decided to go out to a place that is good for flipping stones and finding snakes. That's always an option on overcast days. We didn't hurry, which was also nice.

When we got to the spot in Norfolk County, it was a bird paradise. Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, a Great Blue Heron and various gulls were hanging out enjoying the snacks that the tide had brought in.

I knew I still needed Common Terns on the year and they started to flock out in the bay.

This picture cracks me up because of all of the Double-crested Cormorant noggins popping up from the water!

So I'll call it now... #71, Common Tern.

And, even though there are some in the other photos, #72- Laughing Gull.

To be honest, I never knew they were up here but it turns out they breed up here and some of those flying gulls in the above pictures are juveniles. The more you know!

The next day, August 22nd, was our anniversary. For 23 years she has put up with me. Not sure how, but I hit the lottery big-time. It was another cool and rainy day. We'd thought about heading into Bristol County to look for the elusive Massachusetts Box Turtle but we got up too late. Eventually, we just went over to a local spot that is usually too darn boiling on sunny days and found it perfect on this cloudy one.

Hey, what do you know! A Bullfrog!

While that was the only cold-blooded find of the day, there were other cool things to see, like a Honeybee on Goldenrod with it's saddle-bags packed with pollen!

The river was very low but that made for a lot of shorebirds, including #73, a Solitary Sandpiper.

I snapped a bunch of pictures of the various birds, then tried to ID them at home, with a little help from a Facebook group. It turns out I got #74, a Semipalmated Sandpiper, a bird I thought I'd photographed before but hadn't, making it Lifer #207!

We considered that a good use of downtime and a good way to spend our anniversary. We got Thai food to go and took it home to watch Mario Bava's Kill Baby Kill, the second feature from our first date, which was also August 22nd. (We got married a year to the day after our first date.)

The counts would be getting bigger in the days that followed but these days are good, too. Whenever you get out in nature with the person you love, it is a special day.

Paying Our Respects to the Magic Tree. 8-15-2026

We got the bad news during the week. The Magic Tree, our ground zero for Massachusetts Rat Snakes, had fallen. It was just a matter of time. We wanted to visit there within a week of it falling to see if there had been any eggs in it or if, perhaps, there was a baby Rat Snake around. We headed out to Worcester County later than hoped for (Gibson wasn't as effective at being an alarm clock as we'd counted on), getting there just around noon.

We headed directly to the tree site. And a sad sight it was.

Que Sera, Sera. 

We looked around and saw no eggs or young 'uns so we moved on. A nearby field was just hopping with Pickerel Frogs. Dozens were jumping around in the dewy grass. This is the one I got the camera on. The whole day.

We hadn't seen a snake since our July 26th Copperheads. I flipped a rock and we finally had an August snake... a shy Ringneck. You can see the head poking out to the left of the stick.

Parked at the side of  the field, a lawn plow's shovel had been filled with water, obviously for quite some time. Two Green Frogs thought it was just perfect.

I was very surprised to see an Eft under a rock in a nearby wooded area. I guess the recent rain had brought it down. All of the watery spots were very full. A ranger said that they'd been inundated with rain the past two weekends.

At a small "house" not far from the tree (more of a presentation center), there was a folded tarp in the back. Under it was a feisty Garter!

In the bottom fold, a Ringneck was resting.

Up on the road, I turned over a rock next to a foundation and had another very excited Garter. I brought it out to the road to try to get a shot and maybe some film for the band video I'm making. I got both but I don't know if I'll use the footage.

That Garter was sure pissed, though.

The swampy area had a handful of Painted Turtles up basking.

Towards a beach area, I turned over a rock and two good sized chubby American Toads were under it!

They hopped out, which is all well and good except a guy had a very interested dog on a leash (thankfully) watching it happen. The guy was cool and kept the dog away while the toads hopped back into the cracked foundation of the wall.

Walking through a wooded area, I got the biggest surprise of the day. Now, I know I've been called "the guy who likes Redbacks more than anyone else" and maybe it's true. But we hadn't seen one since June 28th of this year and this guy just looked very good to my Caudata-loving eyeballs.

Yes, I was actually giddy about seeing this guy! So damn happy to see it.

Up by the front where the water is clearer, I expected to see some Painted Turtles up but there were none. The rocks along the edge of the water are great snake spots in the morning but it was much too hot by now. However, close inspection revealed a pretty Water Snake in the grassy reeds on the other side of a spillway. I like the way the plant frond looks like a long droopy tongue.

We made our way back to a flipping spot that we'd passed by in the morning to get to the tree. A small American Toad stopped on some star-moss for a lovely shot.

I lifted some bark back there and saw an orange belly slipping away and made a blind grab... managed to safely secure our third Ringer of the day for a photo.

We were back to the car now. Andrea had to visit the facilities and got talking to the rangers. I decided to take one last peek at the fallen tree area. There were no Rat Snakes over there so on the way back to Andrea, I swung by the house again and noticed a massive, rough-scaled skin that hadn't been there before. Interesting. That made me go back to the tarp... just in case.

The Ringneck was still there and this Garter was under it.

Upon comparing labial and parietal scales, I deduced that this is a different Garter than the pissed off one from a couple of hours earlier.

I met back up with Andrea and we had a good conversation with the rangers. They plan on leaving the tree as-is for now and moving it over next to an older fallen part later on. They're an excellent group of people there.

So, hot damn. We had nine species. Not too shabby! But we still had a little more juice so we went to another spot about three miles away where we'd seen Milk Snakes and had removed a half dozen Painter hatchlings from a spillway a couple of years ago.

There was only one thing in the spillway... a large Bullfrog who would have no problem finding it's way out the other end. Tenth species on the day, by the way.

I was standing near the water's edge looking out for turtles and stuff when a small Green Frog hopped into the tall grass in front of me. I didn't think I had any kind of shot but tried anyway. I ended up with one of my favorite photos of the day!

We ended the day on a Painted note and a nice sit-down at a picnic table where we'd seen a Water Snake and Painted Turtle speed off upon our arrival.

So, at ten species, we treated ourselves to milkshakes, our first of the year.

This day was exactly what we needed; a salve for our hearts and brains that have been dealing with a lot of sadness and anxiety of late.