Poke in Nose, Day One. 5-24-2019

Andrea planned a trip for my birthday weekend to visit the Poconos where we'd meet up with a few friends and do some reptile and amphibian searching. She rented a house that was pretty much in the middle of many of the places we wanted to poke around. The fauna in Pennsylvania isn't drastically different from what we have up here in Massachusetts, but there is a lot more of it present.

We got a very early start on that Friday morning. We'd both taken the day off and hit the road well before 7 AM. We stopped for gas in Tolland County, Connecticut and I flipped a Ringneck at the gas station.

Unfortunately, I ripped the eczema on the tip of my finger off flipping this guy and it would affect me the rest of the weekend. Eh, c'est la vie.

We had a pretty easy drive into PA, despite it being Labor Day weekend. Armed with good music and lots of Diet Coke, we made it there in a bout 5 1/2 hours. Once in the state, we took a few pull-overs to look around. The first one got us another Ringer.

It should be noted that we stopped twice in New York to attempt a NY herp but failed.

The next stop had some swampy, puddley areas which landed us a couple of Green Frogs.



Across the street from the Green Frog spot, this teeny Ringneck was flipped, just as a light rain started.


After driving past it a couple of times, we finally got to our house for the weekend. One of the big draws for us was a creek running through the back and plenty of woods, as well. While Andrea was looking for the key, I wasted no time and found a Redback next to the garage.


We poked around out back for a while (I lost a Two-lined in the creek) while we waited for our friend Dave. He works nearby and he wanted to take us to a potential snake spot for our first outing of the weekend.

Dave got there and took us hiking up to a magnificent spot. While Andrea is a little uncomfortable with precarious heights, we still enjoyed the vista.


Dave found us a Rat Snake deep within a crevice but my camera had no chance to capture it. There was a couple of kids up there at the time and they might have scared off a few snakes (which they didn't even know were up there). But persistence paid off and we saw a Milk crawling through a crack.

I honestly wasn't sure it was a Milk at first, it was so dark, unlike our very red ones up here. Juvie Rat? But no, it became pretty obvious. Especially when he poked his little noggin out. We could not extricate it to show Andrea, who would not go down to the edge where he was.

Right in the same spot, Dave looked up and saw his favorite... a Timber Rattlesnake.

Technically, these are our First-of-Year for both species but since Andrea couldn't get down there to see them, later specimens will have to count.

The walk back to Dave's car produced a couple more Ringnecks.


Ringers are wonderfully common in PA, a fact that makes me very happy when I'm in the state.

We got back to the house and our friend Kyle and his wife Kris had arrived by this time and were exploring the back. I hadn't seen Kyle in many years and had never met Kris before, but we hit it off and were like long-time pals. They were going to stay at the house with us that night. Dave had to depart but the rest of us went into the back to look for critters. And found some. Here's a couple of Redbacks.


This one has an interesting head pattern.


Andrea flipped an unexpected treasure...a small Spotted Salamander. There is a pool about 50 yards from the house, evidently it is used by some Spotteds.

Really vivid spots for such a wee one.

The four of us relaxed for a while talking and sharing stories. Kyle was telling us about a nearby place but couldn't remember where the trailhead was. We all piled into his car to drive by and look. We found it. Well, since we were out and about, why not look around the turn-around spot down the street? It proved to be pretty good, too.

We started with a nice stripe-less Garter.


I next saw a Redbellied Snake crawling through the grass... our FOY!


Kyle'd had a little bit of Garter luck, but I was too slow to get to him for pics. But I managed to flip another Redbell up on a hill, the last of the weekend, unfortunately. What a gorgeous color.


Getting back down to meet the others, I saw that Kyle had flipped some large Ringnecks. There was three, but only two remained. 15 and 16". These big gals also both had the Southern-style half-moons on their bellies. Very cool snakes.


I'm not gonna lie... I was toast by this time, after the drive, the hike with Dave and the excitement. We didn't last too long that night... just long enough to pick a lot of ticks off and shower. We went to bed with the window cracked open and Peepers calling from the nearby pool. I couldn't have been more content.