I Ran Out of Clever Titles... Years Ago. 8-26-2017

Do you know how hard I work to come up with clever titles? Well, forget about it. Too much effort.

We went to Bristol County on a lovely Saturday morning, the sun was shining and the garden was full of snakes when we got there at roughly 10 AM. Our first sighting was a neonate shoestring Garter who was speeding along a stone wall. No photo. As we moved in to flip a top rock, we saw a Milk moving away. Andrea got a hold of him but we didn't want to hurt him by trying to extricate him for a photo, so this is our voucher.

Andrea got heavily musked.

As expected (well, hoped for), baby Garter Snakes were all over. They were pretty fast so we contented ourselves with photographing older specimens that were laying about.

This was actually a quadruple neonate flip. One slithered off quickly... the other three were slow enough for me to get a photo.

This big Pickerel was another garden visitor. I hope he was careful... there were some larger Garters seen prowling as well.

Last of the Morning Garter Garden Shoot.

Since the gate was closed when we got there and we were parked out on the street, we'd initially thought about keeping it a very short hike but after having talked with plenty of other hikers, we decided to do the full 5 miles of our route. Evidently, the gate-keeper oversleeps sometimes and parking out on the street is fine. So, we headed toward the river and started seeing some Painted Turtles up sunning themselves.

^ Nice footrest, Clyde.

Further along the trail, downriver... more Painters.

While I was zooming way out to try to get a shot of the turtles, Andrea told me not to move... there was a wee Wood Frog right in front of my feet.

We went along without seeing much for a while. A reliable Redback spot was salamander-free. It was only in the mid-70s now but it was fairly dry so that wasn't a huge surprise. Our next stop was a vernal that was also drying up, but it still had some water and this late in the year, most frogs and salamanders have metamorphed by now. From a distance, we could see a ton of frogs on the edges, many of them jumping in to the drink with a squeak. A few stayed put, like this large Bullfrog.

There was a huge commotion in the middle of the water and a Bullfrog came shooting out of the pool. We weren't the only ones looking for frogs... a decent sized Water Snake (only the second Nerodia we have seen at this place over the course of nine years) was looking for lunch. It sped off quickly when it noticed us looking on.

I wish it was a better shot but with the distance and the action, I'm glad I got anything.

Under a board that was in the wet leaves not far from the water's edge, this new Spotted gave us hope that this year will be a good one for new salamanders!

This is our first maculatum since April 29th of this year. 

This Bullfrog was posing just too perfectly. I might need to make a calendar... So-so Photos of Super Common Animals. I'd buy one.

This Garter was also hunting the pond's edge, completely oblivious to us.

Seeing that Spotted Sal had perked us right up. It made us so happy that we didn't mourn the lack of photos of our next two on-the-move Garters. One crawled into a hollow log that we didn't know was hollow. Cool. The next Garter we saw was warming up in a patch of sun. A really beautiful specimen.

I went down to the river again to look out over the water (one of my favorite things to do). There was a splish and a splash at my feet and I looked down to see this not-so-stealthy Pickerel hiding.

To flip the rusty car hood that is almost always occupied with buzzing wasps or not? What the hell. I did and no wasps came out and we were rewarded with this chubby Garter Gal.

Looks like more babies might be on the way. 

From the waterfall, we could see another small stack of Painters in the distance.

That was our turn-around point so we hit the trail to get over to some different areas on the way back. I'd walked right past this Lady Painter both on the way in and the way out but Andrea saw her this time.

She was passing from a tannin-stained stream to go to the river and she was stained pretty orange herself.

Harumph.

Andrea spotted this Mantis. I would never have seen it.

Flipping a cinder-block got us our Redbacks. There were 3 under this. I only saw the third when I dug that half-hidden guy out before returning the block to its place.

Don't look now... we were at nine species. (Yes, I'm counting the Milk.)

We were excited to get back to the garden to see who had come up to sun in the last 3 or 4 hours. On the way, we saw this periscoping beauty of a Garter.

The garden was indeed a garden of delights. Garter Garden. These two larger models were up in the "hot corner" as another hiker/ snake photographer called it. Check out how perfectly green that second one is. Stunning.

Shopping for a new suit.

This guy musked Andrea into the stratosphere.

Here's a wee one that we flipped and moved to a less ant-filled space.

Andrea caught one last Garter to photograph. We'd missed plenty of speedy subjects.

We went to lunch next, washing our hands very thoroughly, and planned our next move. Our friend had told us of a place nearby where she has seen plenty of turtles and snakes while she rides her bike. We checked the road atlas and made that our next stop.

Sadly, the pond was dry.

It was muddy and wet but there was no water at the moment. There were quite a few Pickerel Frogs in a shaded area, though.

We also added another bird to the year here (Least Sandpiper, #78) but decided to hold off further exploration until the Spring.

One last stop before the highway, our favorite picturesque Nerodia spot. And one was hanging out there to greet us.

Much to our delight, a small Musk Turtle was foraging in the water.

We just haven't been seeing our little Stinkpot friends as much as we'd like this year.

This Painter was up watching us, as well.

We observed this larger Musk foraging and eating plants from the rocks for a while. Getting a photo was pretty tough but I kind of like this one.

We also saw dozens of crawfish. They are also fun to watch as they do crawfishy stuff.

That was our Saturday. We managed 10 species, though it took us a couple of different stops. But they were all in Bristol County, at least.

We had decided to go to a local (Norfolk County) spot early Sunday morning, but got a later-than-planned start. We had consulted this very blog to see when we'd had good baby turtle luck in the past. (That's why I keep it. That fact that anyone ever reads it and hopefully enjoys it is a bonus.) This spot (the one that was destroyed with "improvements" last year) had 17 Snapper hatchlings in the path four years ago on this date. Surely they'd be hatching again today!

Duh... they weren't yet. Oddly enough, we didn't see any reptiles or amphibians until about 50 yards from our turn around spot. Up there, 2 1/2 miles into the hike, we flipped a chubby metamorph Spotted Salamander. Look at the belly!

As the day before, a very good thing to see. Hopefully, it's been a very successful year for salamanders. Last year, with the long drought, was not.

Some boards at our turn around spot gave us our only other animals...Andrea flipped these Red-spotted Newts. The large one is ending its Red Eft phase, getting ready to return to the water and the little one is just beginning its life on land. It was only about an inch long.

That's all we saw during our 5 mile hike but, as I like to say, we were together and in nature so it was wonderful. Except when I tried to snap a candid from above Andrea and she was totally on to me.