You Dirty Rat... You Made Me Risk EEE! 9-22-2019

We've started to get cocky. Spray down and go about your business. I'm not a gamblin' man, but I want to get my plump, juicy ass out into nature and see reptiles and amphibians before the winter so I say "screw you" to the threat of mosquito-born illnesses. We headed out to Worcester County to a town listed as "High" risk for EEE virus. You only live once and we hadn't seen a Black Rat Snake on the year, no even on our Poconos trip, and we've seen them at this park before.

We got there at a very good time, just as the sun was warming things up nicely. Rat Snake Ground Zero didn't give us instant gratification, so we moved on to some other areas of the park. Our first animal was a lovely Pickerel Frog that Andrea noticed.


Flipping a board got us a glimpse of a snoozing Garter Snake.


Moving on, I saw some broken up blacktop and was able to present a bouquet of neonate Garter shoestrings to Andrea.


I put them back and noticed another wee one, blue and getting ready to shed.


A massive Katydid.


This American Toad is black. Melanistic? I don't know but he sure is beautiful.


Welcome to Painted Turtle Land, land of Painted Turtles.




While photographing the turtles, we'd noticed a slim Garter down among some rocks. He slid in before we could get a shot... but he couldn't outsmart us (this time)!


Locust borer... considered a pest. But man, what a beautiful pest.


Back by some debris, we saw this gorgeous Pickerel posing perfectly.


He'd better watch out, though, because this Garter was definitely moving like he was in hunt-mode.

Spoiler alert... they never crossed paths.

There was a tarp there and as I approached, two Garters took off, perhaps spooked by my clunky footsteps. Another poked his head out, then rapidly pulled it back in. I thanked him for the tip-off and got this shot inside the tarp.


We had done a loop by this time and decided to poke around again, particularly at Rat Snake Ground Zero. We approached an old tree and noticed a small skin we hadn't seen before and photographed it. Then, circling the tree, we noticed a coil... and a noggin. We'd finally seen our First-of-Year Black Rat Snake.

Every "herper" in Massachusetts knows exactly where this is and we'd been to this park many times before, even seeing some Rats, but never in the tree. This made our "dangerous" trek into the wilds of high risk very worthwhile. (Do I sound like a trophy herper, or what?)

Andrea, with her keen eyesight (for some things) noticed a small hole in the top of a sand pile and dug into it, determining that is was a successfully hatched out nest.


We decided to head back to a trail that we'd only done once before but we remembered it as very froggy. Our recollections were correct.  We'd hit a rich vein of Bullfrogs.




Andrea got this shot and I hadn't noticed until upload that there's a beautiful, speckled Green in the upper right corner, in the moss.


This is a Green that I saw through the bushes.


We finished up with some more moss-loving Bulls.


On the way out, we checked where the Rat had been for one more look, but it was nowhere to be seen. Our timing had been very good earlier.

It's always good to add a First-of-Year, even so late in the season. That, along with the many other sights, makes our death-defying antics worth it. Bite me, mosquito-boy. You didn't get me this time!

By the way, it was the last day of Summer.

Risky Hisses. 9-21-2019

Y'know, "Moderate" and "High" EEE risks aren't so scary. We always spray down pretty well and if we just avoid the more wooded areas...

Sounds like an addict speaking. It is. We said these very things, then headed to EEE-addled Plymouth County on a sunny Saturday morning in hopes of seeing a few animals we can't see in the safer, closer spots. We got there in the late morning and the sun was shining. We immediately flipped a couple of healthy looking Redbacks.


That's a good sign... there has been a lot of aerial spraying for infected mosquitoes here. I'm glad it isn't killing everything.

One thing that was out in force was the Orange-striped Oakworm. These little beauties were all over the place, by the thousands.

I remember seeing a ton of these in previous years, as well. You know what, though? I can't recall ever seeing the moth it turns into.

Well, instant gratification is never a bad thing and we got it this day. Just on the edge of the path we were walking, we saw a hatchling Hognose Snake, always a target when we're here.

Yes, this little buckaroo was very small.

The funny thing is, Andrea picked it up to move it off of the trail and its hood retracted and it got all calm. That's backwards, kid!

You can get a glimpse of the water of a private pond along this trail and for the first time ever, we saw some turtles up basking. That's three Red-bellies and a small Painter there.


We'd never seen signs of nesting up here before, figuring that because it was a gas-line, turtles poo-poo'd it. But we were proven wrong.

These big shells are possibly Red-belly eggs.

Next up, the bogs. They had done a lot of trimming around the bogs, possibly in preparation for the upcoming harvest season (though I didn't notice a shit-ton of berries). That did make it a bit easier to see into the water, but other than this Bullfrog, most frogs had found proper places to hide.


I was a bit ahead of Andrea when I heard an "ungh" from her and turned around to see her on the ground. I was afraid she'd fallen but much to my delight, she had lunged for a fleeing hatchling Ribbon Snake, only our second of the year.


The far end of the bogs had more photogenic frogs... a Bull:


Green:


Bulls:



Andrea saw a small hole in the sand and probed it to see if it was a successful turtle nest... that very much upset this small Fowler's Toad who was hiding out in there.


Meanwhile, I flipped a plump toad under some wood that still has me a bit confused. Partoids and post-orbital ridge suggest American, the wart/ spot ration and smooth calves suggest Fowler's. His belly was muddy so I didn't get a good read there, though it looked bare. I'm calling Fowler's but those ridges... hoo boy.

Never seen an American at this bog before... that helps my ID. Even though... STOP IT!

This is full-on Green Frog, all day, every day.


Northern pine sphinx, Lapara bombycoides... thank you yet again, Teá.


From there, we headed over to the "turtle area" and were immediately greeted by a pair of Painters on a log.


A distant stack of the same.


This Red-belly absolutely blew my mind... he is massive... the biggest fresh-water turtle (other than a few old-timer Snappers) that I've ever seen. That shell has to be 12-15" long, and high as a sno-cone. Such a magnificent animal.


Some more Painters, smaller but no less magnificent.



From there, we went outside the park to a turtley spot in hopes of some babies. Our first encounter was a Pickerel. It's the 3rd or 4th we'd seen on the day, but the first we actually got a picture of.


I got distracted and became fascinated with some Orange Sulphur Butterflies (Colias eurytheme- thanks again, Teá though I managed the family before begging her for help). They were flitting around New England Asters and it was captivating.



The bogs here had plenty of Painters, but except for the basking gent, they were all just noses poking out of the water.



But bogs are for frogs and these ones were fulls of Bulls.



After leaving there, we headed back through the park to get back to the highway. We decided to stop and poke around a pond that is usually filthy with humans but, being after Labor Day, it is closed to swimming and we had it pretty much to ourselves. (Just a family of lawbreakers and us.) We started to see plenty of Fowler's Toads.



In fact, this year's Tiny Toads were still very abundant, filling the ground around the pond's edge with movement. These survivors weren't teeny tiny but they were still small. I pulled back some bark on a dead log and four small Fowler's were there!


As toad lovers, we were very happy to end on such a high note.


Well, I'm writing this up a week after that day and we're both still alive. We don't think we got any EEE Skeeter bites. So, we call that a successful dare.