That's my Storeria and I'm stickin' to it! 10-19-2013

So, I've been sick. But this was probably going to be the last snake weekend of the season. You know, laying around in bed isn't making me well- how about some light exercise and fresh air! It was supposed to be 65°, which is good enough for me. We headed over to Bristol County in hopes of a snake or two. We would be moving slowly (driving slowly too, thanks to road work) so if I keeled over, Andrea would hear me hit the ground. We got there at about noon.

Hey! First flip! Nice young Garter (who had some dried poop on his vent, but we'll forgive him)



Next up, a Redback peeked out at us!


I couldn't see these two with my naked eyes but the 42Zoom helped us out... a couple of Painted Turtles!


A couple of more Redbacks.


Andrea got this vista shot, which shows how grey it was turning out to be. Sunlight was at a premium.

A zoom-in reveals what's going on in the middle of that pic!

A four-pack of Painteds! Like me, turtles never say die!

Here's a nice tall-standing Redback!


This Spring Peeper hopped by and it took me about 45 shots in 5 minutes to get this one!

Worth it!

A couple of Redbacks posed nicely on a leaf!


Red and Lead.


Right around here, I put a moratorium on Redbacks. I mean, next month we'll ONLY have Redbacks, so let's not fill the pages with just one species. I promised myself only to photograph snakes and new (for the day) species.

The next flip made me eat my words. Oh yeah, there were four Red Spotted Newts... and a Redback thumbing his nose at me!

That rock flip, in a dry vernal pond,  got a "holy shit" out of me.

Yeah, this pond was completely waterless. The poor pond dwellers need some rain! This Wood Frog bounded past us...


Andrea flipped a duo of Newts.


Then we started seeing other spots! Spotted Salamanders! One...

Then another!


Another Wood Frog, this time with brilliant red stripes, hopped by!


Another dry vernal gave us this Spotted Salamander, who kept walking out of frame until we partnered him with... a Redback!


OK, the ban on Redbacks wasn't going to work... they're too plentiful and just too cute! Like these two extremes:


While walking along the path, well... floating... I was dizzy on cold pills, I turned around while Andrea said "here's something"... and I saw she had a small snake. She seemed confused... "wait.. is it..." and I figured she had maybe a Ribbon instead of a Garter or something.

What she had was the most beautiful Dekay's I have ever seen!

So red and auburn, with a pale pink belly, we thought we might actually have a Redbelly for a second! But no, pure Dekay's, but what a stunner!




How she found that in the leaves (on the move!) I'll never know.

Another Andrea vista shot...

Another Painted Turtle zoom...


Time is right for another Peeper!


We got to a stream where we have seen Two-Lined Salamanders before. I flipped for a while with no luck, but Andrea scored one!


I countered with another Peeper.


OK. Redbacks. But come on! One tailless guy coiled himself up and one guy was so small, he hid under a dime! Ya just GOTTA appreciate that!



OK, last Redbacks. But this flip was indicative of the Redback smorgasbord... a Six Pack!


It is with great pleasure that I can add that on the way out, my last flip got us a wee Garter Snake.


Would he be our last of 2013?

So we started and ended the day with Garters. Not bad for Mid-October! Me? I'm still sick (on Monday) and even had to not go out on Sunday with Andrea. But she had a handsome young man to herp with so all is.... hey!!!!!!