The Spotless Mind of the Eturtle Sun. 8-26-2018

Of course, we were exhausted after our Friday and Saturday but that didn't mean we slept in. We have cats. So after some bladder-steppin', I got up. I let Andrea snooze for a bit but we were going to meet our friend Tim (of Box Turtle fame) to take a look for Copperheads at 9:30 AM, so I still roused her pretty early.

We met Tim and hit the small mountain area but once again we came up empty. No snakes at all... no Coppers, no Garters, no Racers. But we enjoyed ourselves all the same... any time we get to hang with Tim is a good time. We all had other plans for the afternoon, so we made our farewells and Andrea and I headed over to a Norfolk County reservoir to look for turtles. It had become pretty hot but the Painters weren't minding it at all.



I'd said I wasn't asking for much. I just wanted some turtles, toads and a Water Snake. Well, part two of that equation was next with this fine American Toad.


Lousy shot but look at the high dome on that Painter on the right.


We'd run into some birders. I complimented them on their superior psshhing abilities. They told us of some species they'd seen including Lesser Yellowlegs. I told them that I didn't think I'd ever seen them, only Greater. He said all that was here at the moment was Lesser. This made me focus on birding for a spell. And that paid off with Lifer #175 and #87 on the year... Lesser Yellowlegs.


Full-tilt Turtle Yoga. (Note the extra noggin just beyond the rock.)


While down looking at birds, Andrea noticed this large noggin in the muck. Serious Bullfrogs are always good to see.


I didn't need a Cedar Waxwing on the year but I managed a pretty good photo, so here it is.

(I saw one in June, #75)

The few, the proud... the Painted.



This large fishing spider was noticed from atop a bridge over a spillway. There were two of equal massiveness.

It was pretty toasty out and in the sun, Andrea was starting to feel queasy. We decided to cut our journey short, turning back before our planned point. But there was still plenty to look at on our shortened route.

Some people who don't know the species call them Sun Turtles. You know, that's a pretty good name for Painted Turtles. They certainly are sun worshippers.





I saw a piece of debris that we'd missed on the way in and turned it over. Five toads were under it! They scattered but the one I managed to shoot gave me a big surprise... it's a Fowler's, meaning both of our non-Spadefoot Toads in Massachusetts are present here.


My main goal was to get Andrea back to the car and into the AC. It was she who suggested we go down to the water to look at a spot where some teens had been fishing earlier. We got down there, looked around (a pair of Mute Swans ignored us) and checked the edges for turtles. There was nothing. Except when I looked down and noticed this candy-cane Water Snake had come up to check us out for a moment.

My guess is they know humans leave bait fish and stuff. When he saw we had nothing to offer, he ducked back under and swam away. The coolest thing ever.

Obviously, we were pretty happy at seeing our first Nerodia of the weekend (species #19!) and we had a bit of a better spring in our step as we neared the car. What could possibly be a better ending to the weekend than that? Well, what if a beautiful 2 1/2 foot Garter scooted across the path in front of us? Because one did.


One last peek at the pond, one last "Sun Turtle"...


We got the AC on, cooled off and got some lunch (and cold, icy smoothies). We'd had a hell of a weekend and were ready to chill. Though we never really got to. Oh well. I'll sleep when I'm dead, which probably shouldn't be too long of a wait.

Falling Awake in the West. 8-26-2018

Our hotel (motel? Whatever.) was fine but to be honest, we didn't sleep super soundly. That's OK, it made it easy for us to rise and shine (?) and get out early. We had a lovely diner breakfast before heading over to a lovely spot a few miles away.

We had visited here only once before, last year and at dusk. We'd heard owls hooting as we were leaving. This was the opposite; not many animals were up at all yet. Good morning, pond!

(There is a Great Blue Heron on top of the furthest out bird box.)

We had all of our ducks in a row, even if they were barely awake yet. Young Wood Ducks, continuing of Search For Wood theme of the weekend.


We had been very surprised by our lack of Redbacks and Efts the day before so it was nice to see the former on an early flip.


An Eft was next, naturally. The first two species were ones we had failed at the day before. That's a good start.


Three for three... a Dookie! We had found one under the very same rock on our previous visit. The Dookie Stone. (Sorry... Northern Dusky Salamander.)


Redbacks were much easier to find on this sunny Saturday.



Our fourth species of the day... and the fourth one that he hadn't seen the day before! A large Green Frog that was flipped under a not-so-large stone.


We got up to the dam area and were hoping to see some baby turtles or snakes but it was very overgrown.

Sadly, Andrea saw a trod-upon Dekay's Snake up there. I hope it wasn't me that did it. Poor thing. It would have been a first in Hampshire County for us, too. We databased him anyway.

We did see a Pickerel Frog up there, though. It broke our "didn't see it yesterday" streak but its still a welcome sight, as always.


We hit the trail on the other side of the dam to keep on exploring. This Eft was truckin' pretty fast and I couldn't get a decent shot. Only about an inch long, he was.


We went to a "wildlife blind" but it was so overgrown, we could see out the holes. Blind was a good word for it. We decided to keep going up the main path past the blind, new territory for us. We went about a mile further, hoping to see a field but there wasn't one. We did see another fine Pickerel on that section of the hike, but little else.


We headed back. On the way back to the dam, Andrea saw this gorgeous Eft posing for all he was worth.


She also flipped this lovely Goldtop phase Redback.


Up at the top of the dam, she got this bit of beauty captured.


That was it for this place. To be honest, the walk back to the car was pretty grueling. Andrea's fit-bit went off with a mile or so still to go, meaning we did about 6 miles at our first stop of the day. On very little sleep. In the summer heat. Eh, whatever... we made it and got into the car to drive up into the mountains, to visit one of my favorite places in the world... a cold mountain river in Berkshire County.

Again, much was overgrown there but we found some boards to flip and got some Redbacks right off the bat.

This is the spot where we often find erythristic Redbacks so we were eager to try to find some of those.

This little Wood Frog really made me work; always hopping away just when I had him in my viewfinder. Finally, I got this photo.


Viva le Pickerel!



I was eager to get out into the water. Andrea, not as much. I went in (mmmm... cold and brisk!) while she stayed on shore nearby. We both got to see the first Dookie up here.


I went upstream in the water while she took the paths through the woods. We both found some Two-lined Salamanders. Hers, on land.



Mine, in the river.


She found a Wood Frog hopping in the forest.


When we're at this place, I always have to try my luck with a Spring Salamander. I usually say wont leave until we see one, but I often have to give up. Luckily, it didn't take awfully long before I flipped a rock at the water's edge and saw this while I waited for the silt to clear.

Oh, yeah! I actually coaxed it into an empty Diet Coke bottle (rinsed and clean, thank you) to take it to show Andrea. Luckily, she was just on the other side of the river watching me. I released it and took a better portrait.

I love these guys.

Target achieved (except for a Wood Turtle), we took our time, just enjoying the sights.




One more Dook before I got out of the water.


Heading back through the woods together, Andrea flipped this Redback who was also a Leadback. Confused little fella.

It should be noted that before heading into the water, I did find an erythristic Redback (all red) but he crawled into some pine needles and disappeared while I was fiddling with the camera. Oh well... next time.

It was early afternoon and we had just about enough gas (in us- the car was fine) for one more stop. We headed back down to Hampshire County to what we call "New Wood Turtle Place", a spot we'd stopped at the previous month. In truth, my main interest there was to visit a little alcove off of the boardwalk that overlooks Painted Turtle Heaven, my other most favorite place on Earth. They just sit there basking, looking at you every once in a while, but it is the best place ever to see Painters. It was full, as we'd hoped.


Lets take a better look at that guy in the front-left.

Yoga!



This guy has a leech on his shell. I'm sure a pal will eat it off.


What a spot!




This Green Heron was also there, doing a Beethoven impression and catching small fish.


We had to move on after too long because the 'skeeters were gnawing on us. Once we got back on the trail, they came out in force. I risked the loss of much blood trying to get this Redback photo.


This is a short hike overall, only about a mile and a half and we started moving quickly. We were very tired and we were being eaten alive. We saw no Wood Turtles and no snakes but we saw this bunny.


The last thing I photographed was this American Dagger Moth caterpillar. I got a mosquito bite in the corner of my eye taking this.

That was it... we hurried to the car and started the 2 hour drive home.

So, our anniversary weekend was in the books and we declare it a success! Lots of time together and lots of beautiful animals in some of our favorite places in Massachusetts. Sixteen species over the course of two days, including two First-of-Years on Friday. We got home at a reasonable hour, too. Not a bad two days.