9/5/2010 now with 33% less ass!

Anyhoo- we got a really early start and got to our Bristol County at about 8:30 AM. The grass was still covered with dew and it was cool. That didn't help us find any snakes though! Pickerel frogs, however, were out and about!



Redbacks were around as well...


This poor guy was the first to go on my ass (area... admittedly rather high...)

Hey proceeded to crawl up and under my shirt, tickling the hell out of me!


We did eventually get lucky and find a lil' shoestring garter snake!



As they often are in Taunton, toads were well represented!



A pond that is usually there was all but dried up... so we walked through the muck and found lots of frogs, both pickerel and green...




And tons of snail eggs...


And even a leadback phase of the Redback!


In one beach area, there are always holes dug with turtle shells scattered around, leading me to believe that skunks or raccoons dig them up and eat them before the young chelonians have a chance to hatch. I was happy to reach into a moist hole (easy, now) and dig out empty shells... these guys hatched and were already gone- out in the world doing important turtle things!


It was also an avian-heavy day. There was a group of 4 big birds right overhead- 1 large and 3 medium ones circling above.


Geese and swans had taken over all of the good turtle basking spots!


That didn't seem to bother the two guys in the background here...


I barely got a shot of this beautiful Pearl Crescent Butterfly.


One spot there had become a girly magazine bonfire area. A few months ago, there just appeared in the middle of a trail, a huge pile of half burned magazines. Someone had disposed of their collection (or had it disposed of by a furious partner). At any rate, having sat there for a while in the rain and sun... the charred magazines had become pretty decent habitat! These ashy pickerels and redbacks are a testament to that!



So, all in all it was a pretty good day, though arriving so early didn't really give us any breaks.