September Ends... 9-29-2017

We both wound up with Friday the 29th off so we decided to take advantage of the sunny day and head out to a very good spot deep into Worcester County. Thanks to Google Maps, Andrea had discovered a large sandpit area in this wooded/ pond paradise. Being that she loves turtles more than everything else, including me, we thought it might be worth seeking out said sandpit to see if there was any action.

The temps had dropped into the low 50s (maybe even the high 40s out here) during the night so getting there at 11 AM when the temps "soared" to the lows 60s didn't seem like  a bad idea. The place was very grown-up since our last visit (which was April! Duh!) and out of the sun, it was chilly. Our first sighting was a small Peeper who wouldn't sit still for a photo and eventually disappeared. Since we'd just bug-sprayed and used hand sanitizer, we weren't going to try to catch him just for a photo. It took some time but we finally flipped a straight and narrow Redback for our first animal.


Unlike the Peeper, this Question Mark Butterfly not only stayed put for a photo but opened its wings for a better shot.


Our search for the sandy part took us roughly a mile past our usual turning point, where we take trails between some ponds and wetlands. We both saw a Garter Snake on either side of the path at one point and we both failed to catch it or get a photo. It wasn't our day. Persistence paid off and we finally found the sandy, possible nesting area. But...

Oh well, at least we found it. But not being lawbreakers, we didn't go through it. (Though we took a peek... yup, it looks wonderful.) She's a Lawbreaker, Thingmaker, Fart-taker don't you mess around with her.

We walked our mile back to the regular route not discouraged, but happy to have actually found the area.

Finally, back to the ponds, we spied some distant Painted Turtle stacks.


I could see another, further stack so we moved around the pond for a better angle. Still too far for a clear photo, this chorus line of Painters has at least ten dancers. Noggins are sticking up everywhere.


This little nearby fella had his own log on which to luxuriously stretch out those hamhocks.


This guy just showed me his butt.

It was good to actually get photos of animals, though.

We got to a path that goes between wetlands that we have started to call Garter Alley. There are usually tons of Garters along here and almost immediately, a small one was leisurely crawling along the path. He slipped in the some brush and I made a weak attempt to corral him. But you know what? I'm 6'2" and weigh over 200 lbs. My days of jumping for a 12" snake are over. I'd getting so old and clumsy that I fear hurting it. So it got away without a photo. Not my day. This snoozing Water Snake was more my speed.

Maybe my Indian name should be changed from Old Man Chasing Garters to Old Man Looking at Sleeping Nerodia.

Andrea spied some Bullfrogs. I love this wide shot she got of this one's noggin.

Here is my close-up.


This Bully was doing his Shakespeare. "To be, or not to be..."


Some of our better water spots had dried too much for Chelonian habitation so when we got to the river, we were happy to see plenty of basking Painters out there.

Check out the smile on that guy second from the left.

This one looks like he's having a glorious bask. Regal.


We finally ended this long hike, Andrea's fitbit went off and everything, and I couldn't believe we didn't get a Garter shot. All of a sudden, Andrea saw this in front of her on the path back to the car...

It only gave her a second to get that shot but she did it and redeemed us. Hey, I thought I was One-Shot Howlett.

We poked around the train tracks on the way out and I saw one last sandy Redback.


We didn't really feel like eating or going home (it was rapidly approaching rush-hour on a Friday- yikes) so we went to another spot on the way home. It was cool by now and very quiet there. We walked in a mile or two and saw nothing so we turned back. It was too cool for reptiles but we kept hoping for frogs. On the last stretch of trail back to the car, Andrea noticed this massive Nerodia with a massive meal in its belly. How the hell did I miss that walking in? Not my day.

My guess is that it ate a small River Carp, which are invasive, so thank you!

I went in for a better shot but she saw me and slithered away. But she slithered right over another Water Snake that we hadn't noticed. I leaned down and reached in to gather it for photos. I soon realized that I was absolutely covered with not only beggar ticks but also copious amounts of Nerodia musk.

So, yeah, I was picking those damn pods off for the rest of the day and everything had to go into the wash as soon as we got home but... it was worth it. Look at that beauty!


So, that is how we ended September. Not such a booming day but we were together and not at work! Even a slim day in the field is better than a good day at work. Sadly, today, Saturday, it is cold and rainy and while we'd love to go look for salamanders, we're both fighting off potential colds, so we're staying in. The sun will be back tomorrow but we have family plans. The year is winding down and I am not ready. I never am.

Hospital Herping. 9-24-2017

While I might strike you as a bit of a dunce, we actually have a lot of really clever friends. We belong to an Expeditionary Society with some of them and this past Sunday, we were invited to join the other members in a match of Extreme Croquet. The match was to be held on the grounds of an abandoned mental hospital in Norfolk County. It was going to be hot (mid-80s) and very humid and since the hospital is right next to the Charles River and is crisscrossed with trails, we got there early to do some pregame hiking.

The place itself is amazing; dozens of boarded up brick buildings and plenty of flippable AC all around. We didn't find anything during the late morning flipping as it was already very hot but made a mental note to return on a cooler morning.



We took a trail that overlooked the river from about 50 yards up. It was a lovely view. We decided to go straight to a shaded path of splitting concrete and grass that ran through a wooded area.  Andrea finally found a sweet spot and flipped a beautiful young Spotted Salamander.



Just a few feet away, she rolled over a log and we saw a beautiful Leadback.


We couldn't go too far, so we turned back at the end of that trail and headed back towards the grounds. Passing the river again, we stopped to admire the beauty.

Say, that looks like a basking spot way down yonder...

Sure enough, three Painted Turtles were up out there.

This guy made me think of the Peter Graves classic Beginning of the End.

Unfortunately, the road did hold some DORs... a long-squashed toad and a recently clipped DeKay's Snake. (We'd flipped some Deek skins earlier.) Sad.

It was almost noon, our meet-up time, but I really wanted to check out another shady path that appeared to go along the river, only much closer. I was rewarded with a look at three more Painters, this time not so distant, enjoying the sun.


What a setting. "Love that dirty water" indeed.


We went up and met our friends and talked and enjoyed the scenery while we waited for everyone to arrive. The institution grounds are quite lovely.


We enjoyed a long game and a long hang with some dear friends and made some new ones as well. Here is a glimpse of Andrea's croquet form...

I broke my ball. Talk about extreme.

The festivities broke up around 5 PM and we went back out to pick up where our hike had left off. Sadly, we were low on water. I only had a bottle of hot water that had been sitting in the car. Yeech. But our discomfort was forgotten when we saw this big Green Frog in the grass.


At another spot that went down near the water, we could see a snake cruising through the river, heading towards shore. Of course, we assumed it was a Water Snake, but...

This Garter reminded us that all snakes are good swimmers.


Looking back upriver from this vantage point, we could see some late-day Painters soaking it up.


Heading back to the main trail, Andrea spied this small American Toad making his way along the edge. Quite a looker.


We got to a mostly dried up culvert that looked like this...

It looked pretty good for Two-lines and it was! First flip.


Even though we were fatigued from playing in the sun all day, we made it to the end of the trail and took a breather before looping back. I took a few swigs of my hot water and it was nasty. I don't even like it with coffee or tea flavoring. This was just hot water. Still, it helped. Then... then we saw the Phoenix Toad, miraculously rising from the ashes! Or maybe just hopping through a spent fire-pit.


We were cooked by now and trudged out way back toward the parking lot. It had been a very full day and the shadows were getting long. I had just made it to the gravely parking area, within 15 feet ofthe car, when I looked down and saw this very much alive DeKay's Snake heading out for the evening.

I called out "Deek" and Andrea came running up to help move him on his way.


That little Northern Brown (for those of you who make fun of my old-school IDing) was a wonderful capper to an extremely fun day. Eight species at a brand new spot that shows a lot of promise and is just so damn cool. What does it say about me that I felt so much at home on the grounds of a mental hospital? Oh well.

As a little addendum, I went to our company party at my boss's house in Lexington on Tuesday afternoon. I'm lucky in that I work with my pal and herp-friend Ryan. We flipped this neonate Garter under my boss's steps. Bonus snake!

Ryan saw what was probably a Ribbon slip under a boulder out in the woods but we never got a photo of it.

A Saturday Morning Quickie. 9-23-2017

The band I play in had a rare Saturday afternoon benefit show so Andrea and I had to pick a fairly local place that we could get through in a few hours in the morning. We chose our longtime favorite pond in Norfolk County, a spot we used to frequent but have only been to once or twice this year. We got there at about 10 AM and it was overcast in in the 60s with a brisk wind. This would be our first Fall hike of 2017.

We might have been too early for snakes and turtles but it was plenty wet under logs and with the cooler temps, we were hoping for salamanders. We went quite a while without seeing anything until Andrea saw this Pickerel Frog jump between some rocks.


It took a while again, we went well over the half way mark of the hike, but Andrea finally flipped a lucky log that had two Redback Salamanders under it.



Walking further up that path, I looked back to see that she had lunged and was bringing up a smallish Garter Snake in her hands.

It had been hunting so we didn't bother it for long. In fact, when Andrea released it and it stayed near her feet, poking around and hunting. It went under some leaves while in pursuit of lunch... this is all we saw at one point.

It's always fascinating to watch wild snakes act like wild snakes.

Also along that path (hey- we were finally seeing some stuff) was a small American Toad. We warned him about the hunter a few yards back.

The sun had started to break through and it was getting nice and warm.

We were down on an adjoining path where we have seen a couple of different kinds of Ambystoma and I heard Andrea yell that she had one. What kind? She was uncertain right away but she  finally noted the faint yellow spots.

A metamorph maculatum.

Look at that sexy leg.

As you might have noticed, Andrea had found every animal so far. I was eager to contribute as we headed to a reliable Two-lined Salamander spot. Stepping toward the muddy ravine, I startled a small Green Frog into the puddled water. Yay! I helped! (Though Andrea got the best photo of it...)


It was Andrea again with the Two-line, who sat there un-Two-lined-like for a photo.


We diligently searched "Ringneck Hill" but saw no Ringnecks. I saw nothing while wearing myself out but Andrea found a few Redbacks, one of which looked like this. A wee, all-noggin fella.


Before leaving this spot, a Pickerel Frog jumped away from me but not far enough to keep me from getting an ID-able database shot.


We had hoped that the campground/ beach/ dock area would be empty since it was now Autumn but it was full of die-hard humans. That didn't deter us; we poked around anyway, just a little more stealthily. Some kids saw me and asked what I was looking for. I told one (a kid that had long gorgeous hair and politely corrected me of my improper pronoun... I respect the hell out of that) and he said that he'd seen some snakes, possibly mating, under the dock. I hadn't seen any when I looked from the shore but he peeked over the side from the top of the dock and said they were still there. So I stepped into the pond and moved out and sure enough... there were two (non-mating) Water Snakes. One was very blue and covered with cobwebs and the other retreated when it saw me.


While talking about fish and turtles with the kid, we all saw a third Nerodia crawling on the rocks around the front of the dock.


Walking back to dry land and passing the first snakey area, I noticed that the larger Water Snake that had retreated had come back out to bask some more. A truly gorgeous specimen.


So that was our morning/ early afternoon hike. It was roughly 4 1/2 miles and I got home in time to take a shower and get to the venue to get ready for the show. Yes, it was a very long day but getting the chance to see 8 species before going to play a benefit show (that did very well, thank you) made it very rewarding. I leave you with a photo of my musical magnificence.