Ending August with Orange 8-31-2013

Ever the optimists, we got up at AM on a Saturday, got ready and hauled our asses into the car to drive 2 hours to Western MA. Franklin County, to be exact. Yes, we were continuing our quest to find either a Hognose Snake or a Box Turtle. Our friend Mark has all but placed these two species in our hands... he has been very specific about how to find these. So it was with great confidence and excitement that we stepped out of the car around 7:30 AM. It was drizzly, so we had our camera condoms at the ready, but the rain more or less held out for us.

"Ground Zero" of Hognose place was empty. We searched and searched and searched. Andrea came up with these eggs:

Mark has confirmed that, yes... he knew they were there as well. He had excavated the nest to see how many empty shells there were. Looks like there are a few new Hognoses in the world!

But we didn't see them.

After a couple of hours, I finally flipped a Redback!

Soon, Andrea countered with a small American Toad.

And another Redback.

We were exploring a hill that goes up a power cut area. There is tons of red clay rocks to flip. We flipped a dozen shed snake skins... mostly Garter, I think, and one with smooth scales.

But we never saw an owner of those skins. We managed to flip no less than FIVE hornet nests though! I also managed to roll one of those clay rocks back, have it slide and fall and crunch the back of my leg, a wound that is still hurting two days later.

OK... we were getting frustrated again. A small Wood Frog, our first in this place, cheered us up some.

A pile of flippables got us a couple more Redbacks (and we missed a Leadback).

But shit, we'd spent over four hours here again, after getting up before dawn, and come up with only three species. Franklin County Failure. On the way out, we found a Walking Stick, which helped out.

We regrouped and had some lunch before heading over to Mt. Toby, another place in Franklin County. This place was supposed to have creeks and ponds. Thatsa what I'ma talkin' about.

Mt. Toby couldn't be more different!

We found a small Green Frog right away!

We started up the trail going around the pond; that seemed like a good idea. Until, not to far in, this was three feet from the path, and it was busy!

We turned back to try a different trail.

A Pickerel was waiting for us at the end of Wasp Trail.

In fact, Pickerels were going to be super-abundant! There were dozens of them, mostly eluding our camera.

(That middle guy jumped and hit Andrea's foot!)

Andrea saw the grass making an S-shape and we both were unable to find the Garter that slipped past us. But, somehow, Andrea saw this other Garter, a wee devil slithering in the grass!

Four inches of fury!

That made us happy!

I was going up a shady, wet hill flipping for Redbacks and Ringnecks when Andrea called "Eft! And you've got to see it!" He was hanging by his tail and back feet!

Evidently, he'd been walking along a stick above this bush and slipped! We helped him down.

One of those creeks was coming up, though it was pretty dry. But dry creekbeds have been good for Two-Lined Salamanders before... and this one was!

There was a little bit of water running, cascading from above, so I ascended a bit to flip and Andrea stayed low. We simultaneously flipped salamanders! Mine, a Dusky!

And she a beautiful Two-Lined!

She then found a pooled area in the creek that had many Two-Lined larvae in it!

We then went Dusky crazy... the was Fuscus among us!

Then we flipped the flip of a lifetime! I flipped a Dusky, who moved a bit, so I had to pick her up before replacing the rock. We photographed her in my hand and I noticed two newborn Dusky babies on her!

They still had yolk sacs on their undersides!

Well, that was cool!

This Green Frog told us it was time to head back... a storm was a'brewin'!

Of the dozens of Pickerels jumping around, we only got one more photograph!

Near where we saw the Eft earlier, we saw this guy:

Aw, come on! That's gotta be the same guy! (Photo comparison proves it is not).

Then while chasing Pickerels, Andrea saw another Eft!

For some reason, Efts were suddenly all over the place! We were seeing orange!

We were seeing the world with eft colored glasses!

Hit me with your eft stick!

Here is Andrea getting peed on by a Red Eft. This might be our Christmas card this year.

So, while ending the day short of double digit species (just 9), Mt. Toby did OK by us in the two hours we had to spend there. Any day with 6 Efts is a day to remember! And baby Dookies? Fergitabboutit! Way too much cuteness for one day!