For Saturday, June 30th, our first day's journey would be to hit the State Forest in Plymouth County. My band had to play that night so we wanted to get there, do our usual 6 miles or so, then get back in time for me to nap. The joys of being old but active. We got to the forest before 8 AM and Painted Turtles were already up on some mud flats in a pond.
I shot this from the car up on the road.
Our usual first spot produced a trio of Fowler's Toads who were already preparing for the hot day under a cool piece of carpet.
Huggy toy! ^
The nearby vernal pond that we'd discovered on our last visit was still teeming with amphibian life, though many changes have been happening. Salamander larvae and tadpoles sprouting legs have been a few of the changes. I believe we have Spotted Salamander larvae here:
This one might be either an Eastern Newt or a Blue-spotted. I really do not know. At any rate, this particular species was swimming oddly, spinning and doing flips and stuff.
This tadpole has some lovely green legs sprouting. Grey Tree?
I'm still working on the IDs of these larval 'phibs. Any help is thoroughly appreciated.
We headed back to the car, under the watchful eye of a Red Squirrel.
Our next stop was a bog. It is usually good for plenty of frogs and the occasional Painted Turtle or Ribbon Snake or a Hognose. The heat was already on so we only saw animals that know how to live... Bullfrogs. Here are four beautiful specimens.
As has been the norm for this year, we heard quite a few Greens calling but never laid eyes on one.
The bogs here are working cranberry bogs and once a year, they bring boxes of bees in to pollinate things. Having been caught in a storm of them years ago, we always walk by the bee-stacks with some trepidation. Rather than pass by the potential disaster on the way out, we tried a new path that worked out just fine and we even found a couple of Fire-pit Fowler's as a nice bonus.
Why do toads seem to love fire-pits so much? I hope they jump ship by the time it gets lit again!
We took a short break at pond-side. Andrea discovered that it is tiny toad season. I offered my bottle top for size reference. It pooped in it.
One more Bully before moving on to the next spot...
It was starting to get pretty hot even though it was still well before noon. Our next spot was nicely shaded, though, so it was comfortable. Tiny toads (that look to be Fowler's) were everywhere. We had to watch our steps.
Walking up one path, we saw a large Garter about 10 feet into the woods.
She was a beast and even though we had some decent photos of her, we really wanted to measure her. So, we caught her, she bit the shit out of me and musked, but we got her approximate length measured...
31 inches of pissed off Garter gal.
We hoped we hadn't bothered her too much. We put her down and she sped back into the woods. There was a commotion a few feet in front of her and a toad started hopping quickly away. She chased it. It hopped across the path, she pursued at full speed...
Now, I hate posting pictures like this but she made an impressive catch.
The toad blew himself up to make it more difficult. We went on with our hike, not knowing if it got away or got eaten. Well, on the way back by about 10 minutes later, she told us the story.
Our last stop at this place was where we could refill our water and see some turtles. Unfortunately, we got to the turtle spot right after a loud family had just walked by so there were no turtles up. We waited patiently and a Painter finally climbed back up to bask.
A Red-belly was sticking to the water in case any more brats came by.
We went to a different part of the pond and enjoyed a breeze while we watched fish. It's funny... in a tank, you see the fish circling back and forth and think they must be terribly bored. Well, even in a large pond, we were watching the same fish doing laps, albeit laps of about 30 feet. There were Sunfish, Perch (not pictured) and Bass (thanks, Mike Z!).
After a chat with the ranger who works there (a good dude) we went back to the turtle spot and were rewarded with a couple more Painters catching rays.
Andrea checked for wee ones at the edge.
And there in the distance, doing some serious yoga, a Red-belly had emerged from the drink to be fabulous, at least until sugared-up kids come by again.
And that is how we spent the first day of vacation. We got back home in time for me to nap and I survived the gig that night.
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