We lost our minds in Brockton, Brown City 7-2-2013

Tuesday was our day off. After the waste of time, money and energy that was our soaked Connecticunt trip, we needed a day off. So by noon, we figured we'd waited long enough and we decided to go take a look at DW Field Park in Brockton... a place that had been recommended to us by a creepy old man and one that we had been unable to get into before (the gates open late on weekends!?!?).

As soon as we get to Brockton, we notice that everything has a certain pallor to it; everything is kind of brown. Not the beautiful rich chocolaty browns or creamy tans... dusty grey-brown. Dreary. Even the greens are drab olive. Kinda brown.

So, DW Field has 3 ponds and we expected to look at all of 'em. We parked and started to do our thing. Which was tough. Because once again, the dew point was at 99.99% and it was warm... there just wasn't much out and about. Plus, the place was filthy! Bottles and wrappers everywhere, floating or laying about on the grass. Pretty disgusting.

Andrea was exploring a dusty brown hill and found this open nest.

Was a predator stopped? Did the mama Painted forget to bury? (Ellie does that sometimes) Either way, Andrea gently covered them back up in hopes of new brown turtles in the future.

This is all I found. Still sticky paint and a ripped up dollar bill. This passes for art in Brockton.


Along the edge of the pond, we saw no life, but Painted Turtle heads would pop up 20 feet out, only to disappear as soon as I got the camera trained on them. Here are a few that were too slow for my lightning reflexes.



That last guy is a real old-timer. He was huge and even from this shot, you can see shell wear. And just look at that wizened face...

The second pond we saw had nothing, so we changed our course and went back past where we went in, heading for the third pond. Andrea spotted this Pickerel Frog on the way.


At the very edge of the second pond, Andrea saw a small Garter Snake take off, inevitably going over the wall... a 6-foot drop. Weeeeee! I never saw him, but Andrea describes him as... dull brown.

The third pond was the best of the three. I saw a big hump in the (brownish) water. By the time I realized it was a Snapping Turtle carapace and fumbled with the camera, it had submerged. But he poked his noggin out for this shot, of which I'm proud.


At one point, I saw a dull brown Garter Snake uncoil from a bask and sweep into some dull brown foliage. I couldn't find him.

We ended the trip with three big Bullfrogs.




So, yeah... we tried a new place. Nothing to write home about. (But evidently something to blog about.) Depressing and dull, chalky brown. We spent two sweaty hours in Brockton, Brown City. That, my dear, is quite long enough.