Land of the Mighty Red Woods. 9-3-2016

It was Labor Day and we were both off from work. Since we'd busted our butts doing family stuff the day before, we felt good about getting back out into nature on Monday. The thing is, it was going to be hot so we headed out very early. Our alarm was set as if it was a work day.

We got to our Bristol County Spot a bit before 9 AM. Naturally, hatchling turtles were our main target, though (as always) we'd be happy to see anything. We were barely 10 feet from the car before we saw our first animal, a lovely Wood Frog.


A formerly great part of this refuge that had been knocked down and cleaned up has been gathering debris again. It was there that I flipped a rock and saw this in-the-blue Garter snoozing.


The garden had another Garter there, though this one was full of energy. He appears to be post-blue.


Nearby, two small American Toads were being cute. The second (the dusty) one popped out of the ground right in front of Andrea.



This place has given us reddish Wood Frogs in the past. It was with great delight that we saw one as our next animal.


What's better than one red Wood Frog? A second one!

There. That totally justifies the title of this episode.

We went on for a while after that with no sightings. We got to a vernal and were surprised to see that it still held a puddles of water in spots. Those spots were full of movement. Here is a small Bullfrog surrounded by the protruding eyes of probable Greens.

I saw one of these froglets on land, black and fully-tailed, hopping back to the safety of the puddle. Sadly, I couldn't get a picture.

There were plenty of fully metamorphed Greens up and about, however. They were very small but all were tail-less.




I was having a quick sit-down on the sandy edge of the river when this little Greenie hopped out and sat next to my foot.

Welcome to dry land, little one!

A tree had fallen across the path. I went over. Andrea went under.


We had been coming up short on our quest for baby turtles. In fact, as the temps rose, we were getting worried that we wouldn't see any turtles at all. Luckily, a distant perch had a few Painters basking.


We shared our popcorn treats.


We weren't the only mammals looking around the water's edge.


We didn't see much after that for another hour or two. When we finally got back on the river, we saw some more turtles basking.



A River Bull.


I finally got my camera on a Pickerel.


The view from above...


Close-ups from that area...



We'd have walked right past this plucky little guy if he wasn't so feisty. He was striking at Andrea so hard, we was flinging himself almost 7 inches! He was only about 4 inches himself.

Hopefully, his sirtalis fury will take him far in life.

That was it for this place. We still had some gas in our personal tanks and nobody had yet won the free lunch wager... first hatchling turtle gets a freebie. Since neither of us were too hungry yet, we went to another spot in Bristol County.

We didn't have too much luck there. I missed a Water Snake both with camera, then hands. My only photo there was this Green Frog.


But we had another place in mind... last call for free lunches. We drove another few miles out to the next spot. Right away, we were rewarded with a large Water Snake basking in the now 90°+ heat.

3 feet, easily.

I got into the water and poked around in the algae and plants on the edge. I scored a Musk Turtle for my efforts.


I was about 5 feet in and feeling through the dense plant-life on the bottom, occasionally feeling a shell swim away from me. I finally grabbed one and it turned out to be the same guy we'd let go a few minutes ago!

Sorry, dude!

We went over to the other side of the road to look at the pond on that side. Some folks were fishing there and they said they'd seen turtles. We looked out and saw this Red-belly swimming around.

That was species #10 on the day.

These two Painters were wrestling or playing or just annoying each other.


The mom of the kid fishing said she'd seen a baby turtle near her. Thinking about a free lunch, I asked her to show me where. "There it is!"... it was a Musk about the size of the twice-caught guy across the street. Oh well. But while I was there talking with her, I bent down to flip a piece of bark on the water's edge and got Andrea her coveted Snapling, and a free lunch to boot.

This little guy still has his egg-tooth.


We went back over to a less active spot and this large Water Snake was enjoying a dip.


There were plenty of fish over where nobody was fishing. These Perch were smart.


I was up at the car changing out of my wet sneakers when Andrea said she saw another Water Snake, a smaller one this time.

In the field, she couldn't tell if she'd snapped an ID-able photo so I went in barefoot to try to catch it. Of course, in the warm water, I was no match for this speedy little guy. I thought I had him corned at the shore but the movement in the shallow water was minnows, not him. Minnows and a hatchling Musk.


Andrea put some water into her transport bag (collapsible dog water dish) and took it over to show the people what a baby Musk really looks like.


So, we finally saw some hatchling turtles. Oddly enough, we didn't see a baby Snapper last year at all. We were worried that we'd fail again this year. Luckily we did not. Not a bad day... 11 species and lots of beautiful animals. All on a 90° plus day.

My free Mandarin buffet was delicious.