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.