Three Days in May. 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 2026

Thursday the 21st was my birthday and Andrea took it off so we could do a nature walk. We decided to check out a new (to us) place in Middlesex County. It's close to a Border Cafe, where Andrea had promised me lunch. It was a pretty nice day, low 60s with spotty sun. Not too bad. The place is a greenspace surrounded on all sides by the city but once you're in there, it's really beautiful. Map in hand, we chose our trails, concentrating on wetlands.

There was a lot to look at but very little in the way of critters. We did see a pair of Garters sunning next to a stone wall, but they saw us first and took off quickly. We made our way to the "pond" which was pretty low. We heard a few Green Frogs but couldn't see any. There was more trash at the end of the boardwalk than I like to see as well. Heading back, a bit disappointed, we went by the Garter wall again and one of them had come back out. Photos were tough, but I managed to prove that there was indeed a Garter there.

There were a lot of pretty flowers there, too, like this Wild Geranium.

Lunch was delightful and the band had a cake for me that night at practice. Good times. I'm fat.

Friday the 22nd, Andrea was still off and we decided to head into Bristol County, hoping for a Milk Snake. I discovered that a trip to this spot was $20 in gas, so we hoped for some luck. Low 60s again with intermittent sun.

The Garden didn't have anything for us on the way in, which reduced our Milk chances by 90%, but we forged ahead undaunted. Keeping with the purple flower theme I've got going, here is a patch of Caitlin’s Giant Bugleweed. How's that for a name?!

A lone Painter was basking down on the river.

We were having absolutely no luck finding things. We started to concentrate on birds. There were plenty calling and I was zeroing in on a Great-crested Flycatcher when this Broad-winged Hawk (#55) flew into the area, emptying it out of other birds. Fair trade... only the second I've ever photographed.

We got to a sit-down spot on the river and I saw this dragonfly (Dusky Clubtail?) struggling in the water. I got it out and it stayed with me while it dried out.

I had to force it off after about 15 minutes when we wanted to continue the hike!

Finally at the turn-around point, we saw a few more turtles, Painted Turtles sharing the rocks with waterfowl.

Not long after that, we saw a Mute Swan furiously chasing one of the Canada Geese. It was wild.

We were at a spot reminiscing about how good it used to be when a Wood Frog threw us a bone and hopped into view. We were now at two species!

Not long after that, I flipped a gorgeous, jet-black Leadback but he started head-bangin', making a photo very difficult. You get the gist, though.

Soon, we spied a more traditional, and less cuckoo, Redback.

I was very happy to have an Ovenbird (#56) pose for me in between it's calls of "teacher teacher".

So cute.

Finally, in the Garden on the way out, we flipped a last-year's-model Garter coiled under a rock. It musked Andrea into sticky stinky oblivion as I replaced the rock.

It seems very strange that on such a warm and (sometimes) sunny day that we wouldn't see too many reptiles or amphibians but sightings have definitely been on the decrease this year and indeed the last few years.

Saturday the 23rd was supposed to be the best day of the three weather-wise. Andrea wisely said "since we didn't see stuff where we expected to, why not go to a place where we expect to see nothing?" And so, we got on the road as early as possible and headed out to Plymouth County. $25 gas trip this time. We did hit some traffic (going to Cape Cod) but still got there at a reasonable hour.

We hit the bogs first. I figured frogs are always there. Not this day, though. I did scare one in and saw a small Painted Turtle swimming around that I couldn't get a shot of. Finally, under a board, we flipped our first Fowler's Toad of the year.

Yay!!

Then, we started to see a few Frogs. First a Bull, then a Green.

We searched around the edges of the pond and the immediate area but saw no critters. There was a ton of Sedom growing nearby. Upon looking it up, I see that it is a groundcover known as Pretty Mary Sunshine in the gardening trade. No clue if this is native or if it just took over from some wind-blown seeds. It's very pretty at any rate.

An Eastern Kingbird (#57) sat for a distant portrait. 

Another Bull in the bog.

We'd hoped to score a Hognose or a Racer or a Redbelly or anything but it became evident that we would wind up snakeless. We decided to explore a new trail since we were there. We chose one and it looked very good for possible snakes on a different visit. We did flip one amazing thing... a female Northern Black Widow. Pretty chuffed with that one.

We hit another trail on which we'd seen a Hog a couple of years ago but we saw nothing and we'd already put in roughly five miles, so we headed back to the car and went over to the visitor's center for some easy birds. Luckily, there was a massive Red-bellied Turtle up basking in the cloud-covered sun.

Andrea spied some shells further down the edge of the lake but said there was no shot. I took the challenge and got a decent photo of a Red-bell and two Painters while sitting on the ground.

Sitting on a bench overlooking the lake, we rested and I extended my zoom out for a distant shot of two more Red-bells and a Painter. Nice!

We ended the day with a couple more birds, #58 and #59, a Chipping Sparrow and a Brown-headed Cowbird. 

Overall, not a horrible day even though there was just 5 species of reptile and amphibian. A FoY, 3 birds and a Black Widow. I'll take it. But we're a bit worried that we didn't see a lot more toads. But this year has been messed up from the start so not only are we out of sync, I suspect many of the animals are as well. We will continue to trudge on as long as we're able. Being in nature is still better than being on the couch.

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.

We got to a place where a guy was fishing and he had a cool Husky named Chaos. Just thought I should mention that. The guy had seen a massive Red-bellied Turtle earlier.

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.