Our First Proper Hike of 2019. March 30th. And Second, March 31st.

Temps were going to be in the sixties, almost too good to be true. We decided to spend our Saturday morning at a favorite spot, to get ourselves in shape for the upcoming season. Would we be able to handle a full hike already? Only one way to find out.

The place was packed, as was expected on this beautiful, sunny day. We started at about 11 AM and our first sighting was a pair of Redbacks.


As we walked the trails with dozens of other people, we were drawn to a vernal pool by the raucous quacking of Wood Frogs, still excited from the night before.




I caught this guy mid-quack, making Louis Armstrong face.

Of course the noisy frogs drew a few curious hikers over to the pool. We were happy to talk about what was going on.

Further up the path, we saw a short stack of Painters getting some sun.


Through the trees, we could see another stack of shells. I snuck around and got this shot of five... yes five Spotted Turtles. The fifth is under the top one.

Sexy times or is the top one just a jerk? I shot again to get the bottom guy's head out and the underneath Spotty is almost completely hidden.

We hadn't noticed the secret turtle until we uploaded the picture. First of Year, by the way.

This Painter had some prime real estate all to himself.


We went through a bit of a dry spell, animal-wise, but when it's March and you're comfortably walking through the woods in T-shirts, everything is pretty damn good. Andrea finally broke the silence with a squirmy Redback.


We have decided to not visit our local Garter (and Water) dens anymore this year because it's starting to get nice enough to not have to "cheat". That said, we hadn't seen any snakes yet this trip, even though we had an inkling where some of the hibernaculum spots are. Eventually, we saw a couple of Garters alongside the trail. This first is seriously periscoped and the second has a meal in it's belly!



As we continued to walk around the series of ponds, we could see distant turtles but we couldn't get good pictures. That said, we got ID shots. They were Painted Turtles.


Check out the balancing act that top guy is doing!

We kept an eye on the swampy areas far below the path. We were rewarded with a Bullfrog that was big enough to see and ID from 30 feet away.


We were down by the water looking towards where that Spotted stack had been earlier but it was empty and in the shade. Up on the trail, we heard a woman shriek, laugh and say "I'm not even scared of snakes!" so we went up and looked at the spot where she'd been. This tannin covered Garter had just emerged for the year and was trying to get across the path.


Walking back past the Wood Frog vernal was quite a different story 4 hours later. It was silent. I snuck up to the edge to peek and saw this couple enjoying sexy times.


We were pretty gassed from our first proper hike of the season but wanted to check one last pool before heading home. Very interesting... looks like Spotted Salamanders had had a successful week.


Not a bad first real Massachusetts hike of 2019. No Nerodia yet, but they will come.

The next day, Sunday the 31st, was supposed to be sunny in the morning before giving way to early afternoon rain. We decided to hit an easy and nearby place where we can usually see plenty of wildlife. And have a shot at Water Snakes again. We got there at about 10 AM and not 20 feet from the car, had a Garter jet into the brush. I could only get a voucher shot.


Evidently, we'd broken the Spotted Turtle seal the day before because here's one more, the sole remnant of a double-stack. It's perch mate left this wee guy to fend for itself against our vicious cameras.


Down the trail a bit further, this Painted chorus line was awaiting the last two members before the show began.


It was beautiful out but there was a wicked breeze and clouds were moving in. Wood Frogs could be heard from all directions but I'll be damned if we could see any of them. There is a lot of room here and its all spread out. We finally took a side trail and got our eyes on one of the noisy bastards.


Andrea spied our First of Year Green Frog, a plump beauty!


Considering we'd seen a Garter so close to the car, we figured we'd see dozens of them but that wasn't the case. Near that plump Green, this good sized Garter finally turned up. It could have handled the frog... luckily, she was going the other way.

Now that's a good lookin' snake.


We had to turn back. The clouds and wind had taken over and we knew we didn't have much time before the raindrops started. The frogs were all hyper; we even heard some Peepers and the occasional Leopard join in. But it had cooled off considerably with no sun. We made our way out. We did see this quick Garter on the way...


Our last sight was this tenacious Painter, grabbing every basking moment he could, despite the lack of any more sun.


It's good to be able to go out again locally. We have no idea what the year will be like, whether it will be good, bad or somewhere in between. But its nice to get out and immerse ourselves in nature again.  This is what we love.

Friday Night in the Swamp. 3-29-2019

It was going to be warm and not particularly rainy but we salamander fans are getting itchy so we all made plans to meet up at 8:30 PM at our favorite haunted swamp to see if anyone was out and about. In addition to the two of us, Teá and Dan were there as well as 5 other friends. That's a lot of eyes but also a lot of feet tromping along. Luckily, everyone gets it and were very careful.

Much to our mutual delight, we could hear Peepers and Wood Frogs almost as soon as we hit the trail. At our first spot, we saw one of our targets, the Spotted Salamander. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a shot.

See?

A Spring Peeper that was there was much easier to shoot, especially since I was able to reach in and capture it for a better opportunity.

Hey, nobody ever said I play fair.

This Spotted Salamander was underwater but was in a better position to get a photo of. Check out those bulges.

At the next vernal, the Peeper calls were deafening but we couldn't see them. But how cool is it that these three Redbacks were not only up, but in the water and lounging around the edge of the pool!

We all had to admit that we'd never seen that before.

Finally, we saw our First of Year Wood Frog. It was hopping up on the path.

After breaking the Wood Frog seal, we saw plenty of them.

Another species we like to look for at this spot is the elusive Four-toed Salamander. They're usually pretty tough to see on the move because they're very small. This FOY wasn't small at all (for a Four-toed...)

Again, the seal was broken and our next three sightings were more adult Four-toed Salamanders.

A bright Redback broke the scutatum streak.

We all started to get a bit nervous about so many feet stepping around such little animals, careful though we were, so we turned back. We were a bit disappointed because we'd not seen a Blue-spotted Salamander, one of the most beautiful of our local species. But if they're not out, you can't... wait... is that?

Our first Bluey on the year! And like before, the seal had been broken. Another!

And one last one who posed beautifully.

While we were getting ready to move on from this last one, a small Peeper jumped into the path.

We checked on the some of the vernals again on the way back. After all, things seemed to be timing themselves better by now. I got this cowflop of a Peeper.

I finally got a shot of a pair of Woodies in amplexus.

Somewhere around here, Andrea and Teá started talking about the ever changing genus names and how everything should just be called Bufo and then they said Bufo sapien, a term I'm still laughing about.

Less funny is the look on this poor female Wood Frog's face as she bulges with eggs.

Another pretty Redback. They were moving all over this trail by now, as were slugs.

Another egg-bloated Woody gal.

We'd missed one other vernal spot on the way back to the parking lot so we all made a quick U-turn to take a last peek into a pool. The timing was very good because an Eastern Newt was seen in the water's edge.

Not only our 7th species on the night but a new one for us at this spot.

We didn't get home until after midnight but we'd had an excellent time with friends and the beauty of the swamp. Hanging with like-minded Bufo sapiens is rewarding.