Upon arriving, we noticed a pond in the front that we hadn't seen before. Man-made recently? Or we're just dumb. Perhaps both. I approached it to see if anything had adapted to it already and saw some Green Frogs hopping in. Yup. This guy stayed put for a photo.
There were also a ton of red-tailed tadpoles, which I kinda remembered as Gray Tree Frogs. I posted this pic on Facebook and got some interesting discussion on them
The red tails are indicative of a stressor, in this case it's probably predatory insects. There was discussion of them turning red-tailed by having food withheld as a stressor, too. (Not the case in this pond.) It's an interesting subject that I'd like to know more about.
We made our way to our favorite lagoon spot and noticed that it was murky and mucky. There had been plenty of rain lately to stir it up and the heat had been (and was at the time, too) 90°+. We didn't expect to see many turtles up in this heat but there were a few stalwart Painters.
Mostly, they were in the water, keeping cool. Here's a meeting of the mindless.
We hadn't seen Snappers here before but there was a few up and around this time.
Arrrgh... Painter hoist!
The far end of the pond was in the sun but there was always a handful of Painters over there, skimming the warm edges for lunch.
Kiss me.
This fledgeling Robin is just about too cute for words.
The thick green surface of the water was positively bubbling with life under it. There wasn't enough clear spots to see what it was, but then a Painter scared these two almost-ready Green Frog metamorphs on to terra firma.
A better look at the left one, who is probably completely on land by now, 9 days later.
Y'got a little something on your... never mind.
This Bullfrog wins the intelligence award. He stayed in a clear part of the pond, on the edge, hidden under a stick. Cool and clean.
It took about 95 tries to get that shot.
Finally, just as we were moving on, a clean Painted Turtle came up to lay on a shady log for a decent photograph.
Back on the trail, Andrea said I owed her an ice cream. Evidently, I'd said first snake gets the finder a free ice cream. Fair enough. She saw this small but gorgeous Garter making its way towards the pond. There is plenty of lunch for the lil guy down there.
A closer look at that pretty olive noggin.
Our next animals were American Toads, found about 15 minutes apart. Toads never seem to mind the heat.
We had a lovely sit-down on a bench in the middle of the woods, just enjoying the sounds of the birds and feeling the warm breeze blow over us. Yeah, it was hot but this was heaven. Eventually, we got back up and continued the hike, always on the lookout for Wood Turtles, who are supposedly here. I suspect that even in the best Woody territory, we'd not have seen many this day.
We did see a large Garter take off like shot before hitting the end of the trail. And a nice and noisy Wood Thrush, but no other reptiles or amphibians. Before leaving, we made our way back in to look at the turtle pond again. Still plenty of Green Frogs and Painted Turtles. Heaven.
We left and got ice cream, my treat.
This was intended to be the first part of a series of stops out in Hampshire County this day, but the clouds were getting very dark and lightning was striking. We did make our way over to another river system to look for Water Snakes, Wood Turtles and stream salamanders but the storm was moving in fast and we didn't get much time there before deciding it wasn't safe to stay. Andrea got a little bit of footage to show just how gorgeous this place is. You can hear the thunder rumbling.
All in all, not a horrible day for such a hot one. Any time I can sit in the woods with my beloved and watch turtles being turtles, it's a good day. The drive home was rainy but the rental car didn't leak, so it was all good.
bernie and i both read this and watched the video
ReplyDeletekeep doing this ok?
Pretty good for a hot summer day!
ReplyDeletecheers