Giving Thanks... 11-27-2013

While we were both stuck at work on this Wednesday, the weather was trippy... 62° and pouring rain. The cold was to come in the night and freeze everything but we thought about one thing... Salamanders. With the prospect of an early release for us both (the day before Thanksgiving, y'know), we made up tentative plans to do a quick run through Brook before the temps fell. Well, we did it and got there at about 5:30. It was already pitch dark and still raining.

Of course, our target was any Ambystoma, be it Spotteds or Blue Spotteds. We flipped a lot, but saw nothing and the temps were dropping. But persistence paid off and we flipped a beautiful, small Spotted Salamander!


Officially our latest Ambystoma! And what a cutie-pie!!!!

The rock right next to that one had two frisky Redbacks, one of whom skittered into a hole. The other one was too fast for my camera.

Andrea had more success.


We flipped and flipped as the temps dropped and our breath became visible. Some of the previously dry areas were filling in nicely. Andrea was exploring a dried up vernal that was getting nice and mucky...

That bundle of joy under her jacket is her camera being protected from the rain. She is NOT in a family way!

We got to a pond-edge and got an unexpected surprise... an alert Green Frog!


He was our last animal as we kept the trip very short. (We're still not sure how legal it is to be here after dark.) It sure is tough to photograph in the dark (as is evidenced by my Redback shot!) and our headlamps don't really throw enough light for that purpose. But hey, we had three species in an hour on November 27th!!!!!!!

Something to be thankful for, indeed!

Do They Know It's November?

Yeah, I know it's November, Geldof, but if I can't herp, I might as well be buried!

So... Monday the 18th was very warm! 65°! But I had work. My friend Ryan found a Garter. He had the day off. I figured I would head over to my friend's house right after work and see if any of his Dekay's were up! They weren't. The stones were cold and the sun was going down by 4:30. I saw a few Redbacks, though. The first two walked away on me while I fiddled with the camera.

I did score two more who couldn't escape my speedy camera-work.

And that was that.

Meanwhile, Andrea and I were thinking about Spring Salamanders. Still. We made plans for a Saturday trip somewhere. We knew we had to travel a bit. Since we both slept in Saturday morning (Nov. 23rd), we decided to only travel as far as Worcester County... in fact, less than a mile from where we went last week.

Kinneywoods is on the Worcester/ Holden line and it has creeks running through it that look good for Springs. The sad thing is (again) that, despite heavy rains earlier in the week, the streams weren't running. Plus, the rocks were covered by leaves like last week. But man, the habitat is perfect!


Our first herp was a dark Redback who slowly crawled into a hole as we watched. We had forgotten to have our cameras ready. Oops.

True to form this year, we flipped some Two-Lineds while searching for the elusive Springs. I flipped these two:

This chubbasaurus was with eggs, but I didn't get a shot of her belly.

This guy was just gorgeous.


Meanwhile, Andrea found two as well. Her first was also in a family way and she was smart enough to take a picture!

Her next guy posed himself for this lovely shot.


We got together to herp in tandem as we had separated a bit too much for a minute there. We found this guy.

Andrea picked him up while I replaced the rock and got this charming shot:


We finally found another Redback! This massive beast, no matter how aggressive he was, was going to be photographed, or we would die trying!


The path crisscrossed a "creek", so we kept coming to wet spots. Still no Springs! Oops... go back to sleep, Señor Pickerel!


I ain't lyin'... it was damn cold. We had picked Saturday because it was going to be warmer (low 40s) but it has been a while since we subjected ourselves to this kind of weather. Plus, Andrea forgot her hat. So, we picked up the pace.

This place is littered with flippable stones and should be very snakey in the warmer climes. As it was we concentrated on sals. Like this squirmy Two-Lined.


This was our last animal, though we had many Two-Lineds hand us our asses.


But this place is great. Very well marked trails, tons of stone walls and creeks, plenty of flippable rocks; this place should be great when things warm up! I mean... look at this!


So we will definitely be hitting this place hard in the Spring. And maybe find some Springs. This should be an excellent place (along with Cascades) to hit up on those oppressive hot summer days. We can play in the water and it looks like the trail should be pretty shady when there are leaves on the trees.

By the way, since neither of us found the first Dookie (or any Dookie), lunch was Dutch Treat.

Panning for Gold in Wormtown 11-17-2013

So, yeah... we went to Cascading Waters in Worcester this past summer on a 90°+ day and enjoyed dipping ourselves into the water, finding 2-Lines and Duskies! The whole year, we thought the habitat looked great for Spring Salamanders, too. So, with no other herp excitement to look forward to, we headed out to Cascades, to seek our Springy friends!

Well, the cascading waters looked to be dry. But upon stepping in and flipping some rocks, we saw that the water was indeed there, under the rocks... which were under a layer of leaves. The small pools looked PERFECT for Springs. But we didn't find any.

In fact, we didn't see anything until about 15 minutes in, I finally got a skinny little Two-Lined!


It was tougher than we had imagined. We flipped hundreds of rocks, but there were thousands and thousands. I said that whoever flipped the first Duskie got lunch bought for them. (If we saw none, Dutch treat.)

I flipped and saw some tiny grey larvae swimming away. After a long pursuit, I got one into the observation tank. It was a Two-Lined larvae.


Every once in a while, the water would pool.


Andrea earned herself a lunch when she flipped this beauty!


The only Dookie of the day... it got her a nice cheezy pizza!

In fact, it was the only non-Two-Lined of the day! Here are some more that we found in the first .1 mile of the excursion...




We decided to ascend the mountain, if only to see what was up there. Our only other time here was shortened by the heat and we didn't get much chance to explore. I had to sit my achey carcass down for a spell first...

To the left of the picture (my right) is all cascading water... low and covered with leaves, but all potential Spring habitat.

We got way up there and took a trail off of the main one and found ourselves at another beautiful, watery, muddy area. I flipped a stepping stone and this Two-Lined was under there... Stubby Malone!


Here are our other high-altitude Two-Lines!



We saw plenty more, but they're squirmy little devils!!

We also saw lots of these under rocks...

Anyone know what they are?

So, it started to rain, so we slowly went down the leafy, rocky path. We managed to make it with no injuries! Andrea still looked beautiful, in fact!


So, it was a quick hike, but we both flipped our backs into pain. Just 2 1/2 hours or so. Andrea's well-earned Dookie Pizza sure tasted good on the way home, too!

A new look at an old haunt 11-16-2013

Temps in the mid-50s. Yep, gonna herp.

We have always been curious about the "other" end of our favorite place, Ponkapoag Pond. We have such a successful route that in the past 7 years or so, it hasn't been necessary to  mix it up. But having had an epiphany earlier this year (finding an animal of great interest to us), we decided to enter the back end of the place, to see where those trails would lead us. Shame on anyone who sees a double entendre there.

First off, there is some interesting standing water there, fed by water through a tunnel... perhaps from Houghton's Pond?

It looks very promising for the warmer climes!

We flipped a bunch and got separated by the hunt for wood frogs. While apart, we both found Redbacks. Here's Andrea's, ol' Stubby...


I was taking a rest already (still not feeling well) and flipped a small stone in front of where I was sitting. This Redback was there!

Herping while prone!

Back together, we found a few more Redbacks.


We searched diligently for Ambystoma. Perhaps we're too late this year. None turned up. We got to a small creek area where Two-Lined Salamanders can be found. It was dry. For us, that was perfect. 2-Lines can be tough to photograph sometimes but with less water, we liked our chances. And boy oh boy, did we strike gold! Striped gold!






A break in the Two-Lined action... a small, bright Green Frog was under one of the rocks!


Back to the Two-Line mania... Andrea flipped a large log that was full of 'em!



I flipped a rock that had some puddled water under it. This lovely spotty guy was under it and there was a flurry of activity in the pooled water. Tons of larvae was splashing around in there! Some are visible in the lower left part of the photo...


Andrea broke the string again with a robust Redback!


We then finished off with more Two-Lines.


I was cooked, but Andrea carried on with the search for mole salamanders.


A couple of hikers came by and said they had seen some Spotted Salamanders last week. Evidently, we had all talked before and they knew exactly what we were doing. More interesting was their mention of a snake over on the dam that some kids had pointed out to them. "A big one". It seems that perhaps a Water Snake had emerged to enjoy the warm sun of the day over on the dam... the first time we didn't go that way!!!!

Oh well, we searched the cabin area for Charlie or any snake, but none were out on this side.

But we left happy, if weary. Only 3 1/2 hours, but we found some herps and had some fun. We went from there to meet my kid for dinner and drove by the light of a full moon.