We got out to the Park at about 10 AM. It was spitting out and we had no idea if we'd see anything or if we'd get drenched by rain. Our first sighting, sitting on the edge of a swollen pond, was a small Bullfrog, unphased by the ominous sky.
We thought flipping would be our best bet for snakes but this place has had most of its artificial cover removed so there isn't much left to flip. I miss my board line. Rainy or not, it was warm and that was good enough for a couple of Garter Snakes to be out and about. Andrea spotted the first one, I the second.
This place is usually filthy with Fowler's Toads and I'm very happy to say that this day, they were out.
We saw this last guy pop out of the sand to start his day. Check out his sandy butt.
It was with much surprise and delight that we started noticing tiny toads. It seems a few weeks early but we saw dozens of them.
It's tough to discern the species at this size. It has been our observation that American Toads come out a bit earlier in the Spring than Fowler's do but whether or not they breed, lay and hatch earlier, we do not know. Both species are here, though Fowler's are 10-1 more prevalent. There could be hybrids, too.
Is this Mick Blood? I couldn't properly ID this Lime Spider.
Walking up to go between two ponds and get dirty and look for Musks, we saw this dirty-bottomed Painter girl who had probably just nested.
Andrea wasn't interested in getting all wet and muddy so she stayed a landlubber while I went into the drink in search of Musks. I walked through all of the shallow edges of the pond, through puddles and pools and came up empty. My only sighting was a distant Painter. (And a Spotted Sandpiper, only Bird #44 on the year)
Meanwhile, Andrea found a Ribbon Snake here, the first we've seen in this part of the park.
Long beauty with a bit of a boo-boo on her bottom lip.
Ribbons are always a treat.
Though we had stopped photographing Fowler's, sometimes a real pretty one demands a photo... like this one did.
Not many turtles were basking this day but this 6-pack of Painted Turtles knows that you can still get UVBs on a cloudy day.
There was a human in a canoe not far from them either. These guys were hard core.
I honestly have no recollection in which pond we saw this Bully, but he's sure a beauty.
OK, I'll be quick. We got to the next spot, a place that has been filled with a lot of humans since they opened the gates to this place back up. There was a family or two there fishing. Whatever. We still poked around the edges. I flipped over a log near the edge of the water... it's often a good way to find a frog or two. Underneath the log was a crushed adult Painted Turtle. As you can imagine, I lost my shit.
The meltdown was a slow boil. Yes, the family left. Andrea kept quiet because she knows how to handle me. I swore, I boiled and I said we had to leave. So we headed out. Cars, humans... thank you for cleaning up the goddamn park to make it more attractive to killers. Fuck. More cars trying to get in while some tried to get out. More humans.
Now, there's a number of possibilities on the crushed turtle. One, malicious murder. Two, they were fishing (i.e. murdering fish. Sorry, Mike, but you know my feelings...) and they got the turtle on the hook and murdered it because they couldn't remove it. A mercy murder. At any rate, with all of the work we do to save turtles and learn about and protect them, this is a kick in the balls. Fuck humans.
We looked at a few spots on the way out but I was obviously in a piss-mood. I saw Andrea wave and yell hi to someone that I couldn't see. I asked who was there. She said, "some people up the hill." I asked if they were murdering anything. They weren't.
We went up to see them and the guy told us the story of how he came across an orphaned (or booted out by mom) Raccoon the day before and how, after a stand off, it came to adopt him as it's human. He had worried about this little fellow (who followed around him like a puppy) after he had "abandoned" it the day before and returned today with a can of tuna for it.
Look, I know, he knows... we all know that you don't interfere with nature but he'd felt some sort of responsibility toward the baby Raccoon. He says he'll come back every few days to see if it has moved on. In the mean time, we took this extraordinary opportunity to look at, touch and learn about this (adorable) little animal.
This dude and his girlfriend restored a little bit of faith in humanity. It turns out he knows his local turtles and snakes pretty well, too and we all had a nice long talk while the Raccoon climbed us, drank, ate and melted our hearts. It was tough to say goodbye to our three new friends. (Tougher still for the man who had to abandon "his" baby for the second day in a row!)
They had mentioned a Snapper nesting on a rock pile nearby so after making our farewells, we went to check. She had finished up and was hiding her noggin in the leaves.
There was a clean Garter next to her that took off before I could get a picture.
Lots of mixed emotions swirled in my head as we walked back. Andrea spied this stuffed little Garter relaxing after some time at the buffet.
Crossing back over a sandy area, we saw a Painted Turtle making her way across the sand. Business Turtle.
Before reaching the car, we ran into our friend Steve NewEnglandHerps who we haven't seen in quite a while. We haven't been in the field with him in over a year. It was good to catch up and compare some notes. We told him where our next stop was and he said he might join us there in a bit.
Our next stop was a pretty little place that is usually overstuffed with humans but today, it was all but empty. We headed in and immediately saw this big girl working on a large patch of earth...
Andrea pointed out a nearby basking Water Snake.
I mean, they were both right there...
While that lady Snapper kept up her work, we poked around. We saw another Northern Water Snake, this one looking very much like an Eastern King! Another buffet survivor.
Steve did come by, his first time seeing this place, and we got to hang out a bit more. This pretty Painter was hanging out in the shade of a foot-bridge.
The girl was still at work. She wound up not using the huge patch she dug and nested about 2 feet away from it.
After this, we had one more shot at Musks. Steve couldn't join us (he had been herping in Plymouth County all day and having very good luck) so we attempted to find a place we'd only been to once before. It's a magical Musk spot that our dear friend Sārah had introduced us to last year. Long story short, we couldn't find it. (A subsequent search on Google Earth told us that we were everso close.) So, we headed home. This bunny was munching as we turned the car around.
Before hitting the highway, we pulled over into one spot that looked interesting. It had some lovely wetlands and a small stone wall. We saw this Garter sleeping off one helluva meal.
The wall got us a pair of surprised American Toads, both of whom were glad we weren't Garter Snakes.
It was a long, quiet drive home. We listened to T. Rex's The Slider and mulled over how detestable some humans are and how wonderful others can be. I know I'm not one of the perfect ones... I have a very low boiling point. (If anyone said "it's just a turtle" or something, I might be in jail now.) But there are some kind souls out there and we're happy to know a few of them.
We still need a Musk Turtle, too.
it's my belief that for every really shit fulled human,....there are 10 good ones.... but you have to observe them quietly.... they, like you folks, go about their saving things without fanfare
ReplyDeleteGreat post. You guys know all the really cool places. Not sure how I would have reacted to the log crushed painted turtle..... Likely I would have reacted much the same way that you did. I care much more for animals than I do for (most) humans.
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