May Be, May Be Not. 5-4-2019

May is usually a great month for getting out to see reptiles and amphibians. This year (again) is hasn't been so productive. It has been cold and rainy for much of the time and I don't think its very funny. With temps in the low 50s and clouds in the forecast, we threw caution to the wind and hit our Plymouth County spot. It has frogs there and they wouldn't be as picky about the weather as reptiles would.

Right away, we started seeing Redbacks, the Old Reliable of the amphibian world. I will never take these guys for granted and should I ever move out of their range, I'll miss them.




The vernal we discovered last year is immense. Lots of area for ATVs to rip through and destroy small, growing aquatic life.


Our next stop was a bog and we got immediate gratification with a Bullfrog that looked like a cucumber.


A clump of Spotted Salamander eggs... they look empty. Somewhere down there are some larvae, unless the Bullfrogs ate them all.


Some bog-side Redbacks... Leadback phase on the left.


Somewhere around this time, I saw a gorgeous Pickerel Frog in the water but he snuck under while I was focusing my camera on him. A regrettable miss. This Green Frog helped make up for it.

Andrea had heard some Greens calling before I saw this guy. I heard some eventually. That's a favorite sound of mine.

A couple of pretty, young Bulls.



The sun had been making efforts to come out but it never stayed for more than a minute. Not long enough to fool any turtles. It was good enough for this Green to tan his can, though.


One last amusing noggin.


We hit one last spot in this park, a place where we usually see turtles. The usual logs were empty, of course. We saw a Swan nest in the middle of a pond, though.


Then way off in the distance, I saw a stack of tenacious turtles... my lens extended as far as it could... (that is not a euphemism, though I was excited.)

A chorus line of Painted Turtles! But one of those shells looks to be slightly more domed... a further zoom in revealed...

The middle guy is a Spotted Turtle, the first we'd ever seen in this park! Not bad.

While I was struggling with the camera and distant field IDs, Andrea watched this Plymouth Redbelly crawl up on a nearby log for some rays, such as they were.


With three turtle species in the space of 10 minutes, we had nothing to complain about. We'd hoped for (expected, even) the amphibians but the Chelonian sights were unexpected. On the drive out, we saw this small Painter on a branch of his own.


Some years we have a lot more animals out by this time while some years (like this one and last year) it stays cooler and it staggers the emergence schedule. At any rate, we got out, we got some hiking in and we saw 6 species. It beats sitting on my fat ass at home.