Good Ol' Home Cookin'. March 15, 16 and 17th.

Getting back from Florida wasn't too bad this year because the local Massachusetts temps have been (slowly) climbing and for our first week back, it was in the 40s every day. Nights have still been cold but the forecast for Friday night (the 15th) was for the 40s with rain. That got our Big Night crew in gear. We kept our expectations low. Sadly, Teá had to bow out but we went with a couple of other good friends and had a lovely nighttime walk.

But our hike of choice in Bristol County yielded nothing in the way of animals. Rain had held off longer than expected. As we were making our way back to the highway, the rain came. Missed it by that much. But I had also missed my exit and found myself going further South instead of North. So we said to hell with it, and proceeded on to Plymouth County to cruise the State Forest there. There might be something out trekking in the rain.

We arrived and there was a long string of vehicles exiting. Not a good start. It was 10:30 PM. There was still ice on parts of the road, too. Obviously, plows never went over the roads since most folks don't visit there in the winter. But we went on and were soon rewarded with our first knucklehead of the night, and our first Spotted Salamander of 2019.


We had to keep our eyes peeled. It was tough to see with the ice and pebbles and sticks scattered around the unkempt roads. Hey- there's another!


Keeping a close watch was a good idea... this small Redback was cruising across the road.

While photographing this guy, Andrea said "look up about 20 feet ahead in the road..." This guy was crossing.


Mercifully, the string of cars and trucks we'd seen as we came in had left from a different road. There would have been a lot of smooshed critters had they come this way. We only saw a few roadkills.

We were very surprised to see our FOY Eft out in the cool rain.


Whatchoo lookin' at?


We saw a small green frog shape in the road... it was our first Bullfrog on the year. Then another... and another... we'd found the Bullfrog Hot Spot!




Another traveling Redback.


A Bully huggin' the line.


But it was a night for Spots, though they weren't actually moving yet... it was most likely a dozen horny, impatient males. But they were a sight for sore eyes.






We turned back early because A.) we'd already seen what we came for and there was no point in getting greedy and B.) I didn't want to risk running anyone over. On the way back out, we saw some small specks standing tall... we'd found our FOY Spring Peepers, even though it was still Winter.



We didn't get home until after 1 AM and we had to get up fairly early the next day. But it was all worth it.

The next day, we headed to the Cape to attend the wrap-up party for the Sea Turtle gang, of which we are proud to be a part. Since we would be down there, we left early to swing by a spot "on the way" (not really but it's closer to there than home). We'd hoped to see signs of some amphibian movement there, specifically Spadefoots. We saw none, but there was an intrepid Painted Turtle trying to catch some rays (it was only in the high 40s) and he was our first of the year.


We got to the party and enjoyed stories about the past season, talking about numbers and hours committed and the rigors of beach walking. The cakes were both quite good.



I had told our good friend Box Turtle Tim about our Painted sighting and he said that six of the Painters on the sanctuary had been up earlier. Of course, I had to pay them a visit. It had turned to nine Painted Turtles by mid-afternoon!


During the meeting, they had received a call of a turtle being out and about. Maureen went to pick it up... it was a male Diamondback Terrapin that was jumping the gun. Tim was on hand to take it to rehab.


This taste of Spring was pretty short-lived, unfortunately. Sunday morning was sunny but it was only about 41° and very windy. Still, knowing how knuckleheaded we are, we went to our local dens to see if any Garters were dumb enough to peek out. The Cottonwood Dens, shielded for the most part from wind, came through despite the coolness. We got there in a nick of time, just as this Garter (our February friend?) was slurping into a hole like a piece of spaghetti.


About 10 feet away, three more Garters were trying to get warm. The last guy was just a niblet.




That was a nice way to end up the winter. Of course, the Florida trip was amazing but grabbing 7 species (5 First of Years) on the second weekend in March is nothing to sneeze at.