Poke in Nose, Day Four. 5-27-2019

Hey, hey it was Memorial Day. We woke up in Pennsylvania but we knew we had a 6(ish) hour drive home so we had to be fairly quick. We had a pancake breakfast and headed back to that place we'd hit on Saturday with the gang... the new one to us. There was a lot more to look at there and we wanted to see it as the sun was warming it up.

Before leaving the house, before breakfast, before driving at all, we found a wee Redback in the yard.


After leaving, we got to our first stop and headed in. Some Green Frogs were in a drainage ditch alongside the road but most of them scattered. This guy didn't.


We kind of scooted through the rocky places, looking for basking snakes but seeing none. We made our way over to where we'd seen our Milk on Saturday. Andrea quickly spotted this in-the-blue Garter getting warm while hiding at the base of a bush.


Over by where we'd seen the previous Milk, we saw another, also in-the-blue. Same snake as Saturday? No, but it's roughly the same size.


Hey! Two not-blue Ringers!



Next up was a youngster... the Milk with the brightest colors of the weekend.



The little pool that is sequestered at the base of the rocky area didn't get a good looking at on Saturday so we took the chance this day. We were rewarded with some adult Red-spotted Newts. Some hanky and/ or panky might have been starting.


Not a new species because we'd seen one Eft earlier, but cool as hell all the same.

Back to the in-blue theme, this little Ringer was under a pond-side stone.


Being in a hurry, we headed back towards the car. We flipped a big Milk on the way out.

Screw in-hand shots... here's the best way to photograph a snake...


An old rotted log on the perimeter held a lovely surprise... our first ever adult Red Salamander that we found all by ourselves.

A stunner, too.

The Green Frog puddle had doubled by the time we walked by again.


We didn't have much time left but we wanted to see one more spot, one we'd never been to before. A river ran alongside the place, which could mean Wood Turtles, but guaranteed beauty.


This Garter was catching some sun in a bare patch about 5 feet from the water. I startled it and it took off, as did a previously hidden Nerodia.

We missed plenty of Garters along this path. They had warmed up nicely.

We got out of the sun and on to a shaded path where streams cut through. It was perfect for us and our Dookie love. This guy is names Stubby.


Redbacks were present as well.


Back down towards the river (still poking around for Woods) we saw our 23rd and final new species on the trip... a beautiful Pickerel Frog.


Here's one more for good measure.


Our last Dookie of the weekend.


We were pretty gassed and we knew we had the long drive ahead of us, so we just relaxed for a while, enjoying the incredible scenery.




On the way to the car, we saw our last animal... a Green Frog that may or may not have been farting.


So that was our vacation. 23 species of reptile and amphibian and I added 6 birds to my count (I got home with 85 on the year). The drive back was grueling for a while... I started to feel sick. But Andrea bought some ice cream and it helped a lot. Ice cream fixes everything, or so I've heard.

This trip was essentially my birthday trip, courtesy of Andrea and I can't thank her enough for planning it and getting that amazing house for us to stay in. Thanks also to Dave, Kyle, Kris, Bob and the son we never wanted, Matt, for joining us in a celebration of nature. This is one I'll remember for a long time.