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.